A Usable Enhanced Dynamic BFT Protocol

Abstract

Block chain technology, which evolved as a distributed system preserving a public ledger through consensus protocol, is showing great promise in many different contexts, including the supply chain, the financial sector, the internet of things (IoT), and so on. Important in the development of the block chain infrastructure is the use of consensus mechanisms, and one such mechanism is Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) protocols. However, the vast majority of BFT protocols are inherently unable to be used in realistic settings due to their lack of dynamic features (i.e., nodes can't join or leave a functioning system) and the inability to penalize unsuccessful nodes. In this paper, we provide the Dynamic Enhanced BFT (DEBFT) protocol for handling dynamic properties and faulty node penalties. DEBFT, which is based on Honey Badger BFT, uses Dynamic Threshold Identity-based Encryption and Distributed Key Generation to facilitate consensus group changes without requiring a complete system reconfiguration. Additionally, assessment metrics are provided to evaluate consensus nodes and remove problematic nodes.