Study of consensus protocols and improvement of the Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (DBFT) algorithm

Abstract

Nowadays, blockchain is one of the most popular and innovate technologies over the world. Although this technology appears for first time in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, in recent years, a lot of researchers and industries from different fields such as banking, financial, supply chain management, etc. have given more involved than ever before. The blockchain is implemented in decentralized and distributed ledgers in peer-to-peer (p2p) networks where non-trusting peers can implement digital asset transactions without the need of central authority. Then, other peers in the network, according specific rules determined by the network, validate these transactions, insert them in the block and append the block in the chain (ledger). The key contribution for the proper operation of the blockchain is the consensus protocols. Through these protocols, all the peers in the network or the majority of them, they have to reach an agreement for a specific block in order to insert it in the chain based on different blockchains rules. In this master thesis, we will analyze in depth the general architecture of the blockchain and various consensus protocols that implemented in different blockchains in order to be able to improve the Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (DBFT) consensus algorithm, which is used in the NEO blockchain technology. Finally, a development of a reputation mechanism is needed based on the improvement of the DBFT algorithm in order to measure the reputation of the peers for a specific day.