Comparative Analysis of Consensus Algorithms in Blockchain Systems: Insights from MBFT and Existing Approaches

Abstract

The applications of blockchain technology in a broad variety of contexts have become the basis of decentralized systems, and it has since grown much beyond its initial application to cryptocurrencies. This paper sheds light on two important bodies of research and provides an in-depth analysis of blockchain consensus algorithms. The former is the algorithm of Du et al. (2020) known as Mixed Byzantine Fault Tolerance (MBFT). Such MBFT illustrates a new solution to the fault tolerance and scalability problems of blockchain models of Ethereum and Bitcoin. Second, Chaudhry and Yousaf (2018) provided a clear analysis of consensus mechanisms. They went as far as to draw a comparative analysis of consensus algorithms, including but not limited to Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT), Proof of Work (PoW), and Proof of Stake (PoS). After conducting an extensive review and experimentation of each of the algorithms, relevant strengths, limitations, and suggestions on how to improve each of the analyses were brought to light in this paper. To summarize, the analysis given gives a platform to understand the area of future blockchain consensus research in security mechanisms, scaling solutions, and performance enhancement methods.