A Survey of Blockchain Consensus Algorithms

Abstract

Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized data storage technology, which has been widely concerned by the government, research institutions and industry in recent years. Blockchain technology realizes the trust problem between unknown peers without relying on the third party, which is expected to solve the problems of high cost, high delay and privacy leakage under the traditional centralized trust. Consensus algorithm is the core technology in blockchain, which describes how peers in blockchain network achieve data consistency and directly determines the operating efficiency of the entire blockchain system. In this paper, existing consensus algorithms are summarized and divided into three categories: consensus algorithm based on certain attribute value proof of peers, consensus algorithm based on peer voting mechanism and Paxos class consensus algorithm. This paper introduces the implementation details of three kinds of consensus algorithms in detail, conducts comparative research according to Mundell's impossible triangle theory, and gives the development direction of consensus algorithm. This paper provides reference for researchers to conduct in-depth research on block chain consensus algorithm.