Ticket-based multi-strand method for increased efficiency in proof-of-work based blockchains

Abstract

This paper outlines a method aiming to increase the efficiency of proof-of-work based blockchains using a ticket-based approach. To avoid the limitation of serially adding one block at a time to a blockchain, multiple semi-independent chains are used such that several valid blocks can be added in parallel, when they are added to separate chains. Blocks are added to different chains, the chain index being determined by a ``ticket'' that the miner must produce before creating a new block. This allows increasing the transaction rate by several orders of magnitude while the system is still fully decentralized and permissionless, and maintaining security in the sense that a successful attack would require the attacker to control a significant portion of the whole network.