RENOIR: Accelerating Blockchain Validation using State Caching

Abstract

A Blockchain system such as Ethereum is a peer to peer network where each node works in three phases: creation, mining, and validation phases. In the creation phase, it executes a subset of locally cached transactions to form a new block. In the mining phase, the node solves a cryptographic puzzle (Proof of Work-PoW) on the block it forms. On receiving a block from another peer, it starts the validation phase, where it executes the transactions in the received block in order to ensure all transactions are valid. This execution also updates the blockchain state, which must be completed before creating the next block. A long block validation time lowers the system's overall throughput and brings the well known Verifier's dilemma into play. Additionally, this leads to wasted mining power utilization (MPU).