Blockchain technology will revolutionize many industries since it provides decentralization, transparency, and security features. However, existing algorithms are not without challenges-that is, high power consumption, limited scalability, and vulnerability. This paper aims to propose a novel hybrid consensus algorithm based on a combination of Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET). This innovative approach strives to surpass the current shortcomings and to improve the performance and security of blockchain systems. This proposed algorithm can balance the security, performance, and resource utilization features of the PoS-based energy efficiency and the PoET-based fairness and scalability. This paper shows the hybrid algorithm design and its mathematical modelling. Its operational flow and main elements are fully explained. An extensive simulation was performed to evaluate this proposed algorithm with other conventional consensus mechanisms such as PoW, PoA, and hybrid PoS + PoW regarding throughput, latency, scalability, and energy efficiency. Results showed that PoS + PoET improved performance on the blockchain to great heights with high throughput capabilities and scalability without affecting the security aspect. This study is very important for the development of energy-efficient and scalable blockchain solutions that can open up the application of blockchain technology in real-world applications. The results are expected to contribute to further research and development in sustainable blockchain ecosystems.
Meenal R Kale, Yousef A. Baker El–Ebiary, L. Sathiya, Vijay Kumar Burugari · 7 authors
Quantum computing is progressing at a fast rate and there is a real threat that classical cryptographic methods can be compromised and therefore impact the security of blockchain networks. All of the ways used to secure blockchain like Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit (SHA256) are the characteristic of the traditional cryptographic techniques vulnerable to attack by quantum algorithms: Shor’s and Grover’s algorithms: can efficiently break asymmetric encryption and speed up brute force attacks. Because of this vulnerability, there exists a need to develop an advance quantum resilient blockchain framework to protect the decentralized ledgers from the future threats of the quantum. This research proposes Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG) as a formidable architectural integration, to fortify security of blockchain. Classical encryption is replaced with PQC, QKD with secure key exchange by detecting eavesdropping, and QRNG with improving cryptographic randomness to remove the predictable key vulnerability. Only with a small loss of transaction efficiency, we increase transaction encryption accuracy, key exchange security, and resistance to quantum attacks. In this quantum enhanced blockchain design, the idea is to preserve the decentralization, transparency and security and at the same time overcome the future quantum threat. By going through rigorous analysis and comparative evaluation, we demonstrate that the approach saves blockchain networks from the emerging quantum risks to make sure that the decentralized finance, smart contracts and cross chain transactions.
Michael Wijaya, Franscelino Melvyn, Reina Setiawan, Reinert Yosua Rumagit
Blockchain technology has emerged as a breakthrough in decentralized systems. The development of applications, systems, programs, and financial solutions can now be managed in a decentralized manner, revolutionizing the previously centralized paradigm. In this new system, performance, scalability, transaction costs, and network security present both challenges and compelling topics for research. This paper conducts a comparative analysis through experiments and evaluations of Ethereum and Solana, the two largest Layer 1 blockchain networks today. The comparison focuses on performance, consensus mechanisms, security, and ecosystem development. Performance is assessed through Transactions Per Second (TPS) and latency, while gas fees are compared under different network conditions. The study also analyzes Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) versus Solana’s Proof-of-History (PoH) + PoS consensus mechanisms. Network security is examined by reviewing historical vulnerabilities and corresponding responses. The DApp (Decentralized Application) ecosystem is evaluated based on Adoption Efficiency Index (AEI) and sector specialization (DeFi, NFT, gaming). Through this analysis, the paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the differences, strengths, and weaknesses of both networks, helping developers choose the most suitable blockchain platform.
Frederic von Normann, Mansur Aliyu, Niclas Kannengießer, Lan Bao Quang Le · 6 authors
Proof-of-stake-based (PoS-based) blockchain systems exhibit a trade-off between degree of decentralization (DoD) and scalability: equitable participation of validating nodes can raise latency and degrade throughput, while scaling can reduce equitable participation. To meet application requirements, software architects must balance these dimensions using comparable metrics. We curated a compact metric set for DoD (block-proposal randomness [Shannon entropy], token concentration [HHI], wealth distribution [Gini]) and for scalability (transaction throughput, first-inclusion latency) and applied it to Tezos Hangzhou 2 (Octez v12.3). Across 1,573 controlled configurations with varying validating-node count n, block interval, and block size limit, we normalized DoD by n to enable cross-configuration comparison. Under this normalization, DoDscalability associations were weaker and not uniformly negative. Scalability was primarily influenced by validating-node count. Our main contributions are a benchmarking approach with curated metrics, an empirical mapping of configuration levers to both dimensions, evidence for the dominant role of n, and guidance for configuring PoS-based blockchain systems.
As blockchain technology evolves to support a wide range of Web3 services, seamless interoperability between heterogeneous blockchain platforms has emerged as a key technical challenge. Existing studies mainly address interoperability in homogeneous environments, often neglecting critical platform-specific factors such as consensus mechanisms, asset models, and block generation parameters. Additionally, current standards by ISO and ITU-T define architectural frameworks but fall short in offering practical guidance for real-world implementation. This paper introduces a practical gateway-based interoperability framework designed to support dynamic and policy-driven interactions across diverse blockchain networks. The proposed architecture decouples interoperability logic from blockchain-specific interfaces, enabling modular scalability and flexible integration. Interoperability policies are defined with respect to consensus trust levels, transaction types, and asset compatibility to ensure atomicity and consistency in cross-chain operations. To validate the approach, we implemented a cross-chain asset transfer scenario between Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Besu (Private Ethereum). The case study demonstrates high success rates, low latency, and consistent data integrity, confirming the framework’s practical applicability in Web3 environments. Future work will explore enhanced support for asynchronous execution, trust-based transaction control, and regulatory compliance in cross-jurisdiction blockchain interactions.
Blockchain has toured the technological world as a revolutionary platform powering safe and secured storing of information across many sectors including digital currency and supply systems. This paper discusses the potential of this technology and the essential role it plays in the management of data integrity and security in distributed systems. It starts with a brief discussion of the key concepts of blockchain namely decentralization, the ledger is not controlled by the parties to the transaction or by any third party, immutability of records on the blockchain, the records on a blockchain cannot be tampered with once they have been put on the blockchain, and transparency, everybody can see the record but cannot influence it. The paper then looks at how these principles improve data security and data integrity as compared to centralized approach. Besides, it also looks at some of the drawbacks and possible limitations of blockchain about data consistency and protection again also giving scenarios that support its efficiency.
This article presents a blockchain reconciliation framework that improves transparency, automation, and trust within the SAP supply chain and finance processes. The implemented system with smart contracts on SAP modules FI, MM, and SD permits real-time verification of supply chain activities and financial transactions, thus minimizing manual matching and third-party verification processes. The framework enables automated three-way matching and updates across modules by storing transaction states in a distributed ledger that captures changes. Based on experiments conducted using SAP simulation data, the accuracy of reconciliations increased by 92%, processing time was cut by 41%, and manual processing steps were reduced by 67%. The results demonstrate the capability of blockchain technology to solve pervasive challenges related data integrity and reconciliation within enterprise ERP systems.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) technologies, when integrated with enterprise systems, create an opportunity to fully automate payment processes within ERP systems. This research develops and tests a smart contract-based cryptocurrency payment gateway framework with SAP ERP systems focusing on the FI, MM, and SD modules. Incorporating blockchain wallets, programmable transaction logic, and modular APIs enables SAP systems to independently manage multi-chain and multi-currency crypto payment initiation, confirmation, and reconciliation across multiple chains and currencies. The payment gateway minimizes payment delay, manual processing, and expenses in comparison to traditional fiat gateways utilizing smart contracts for payment validation, tokenization, and invoice reconciliation. Testing under real SAP transactional simulations on Quorum-based testnets showed an about 62% increase in reconciliation speed, 48% decrease in average cost per transaction, and 92% accuracy in volatile token conflict detection—during token volatility periods—resulting in errors. This study contributes to the development of frameworks for decentralized payment systems within ERP infrastructures, advancing the design and ERP enterprises aimed at achieving seamless interoperability, auditability, and comprehensive control over digital assets with SAP ecosystems.
Consensus algorithms play a critical role in maintaining the consistency of blockchain data, directly affecting the system's security and stability, and are used to determine the binary consensus of whether proposals are correct. With the development of blockchain-related technologies, social choice issues such as Bitcoin scaling and main chain forks, as well as the proliferation of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) applications based on blockchain technology, require consensus algorithms to reach consensus on a specific proposal among multiple proposals based on node preferences, thereby addressing the multi-value consensus problem. However, existing consensus algorithms, including Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), do not support nodes expressing preferences. Instead, the proposal to reach consensus is directly decided by specific nodes, with other nodes merely verifying the proposal's validity, which can easily result in monopolistic or dictatorial outcomes. In response, we proposed the Aggregating Preferences with Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (AP-PBFT) consensus algorithm, which allows nodes to express preferences for multiple proposals. AP-PBFT ensures the validity of consensus results through a consensus output protocol, and incentivizes nodes to act honestly during the consensus process by incentive mechanism. First, AP-PBFT leverages Verifiable Random Function to select both consensus nodes and a primary node from the candidates. The primary node gathers proposals, assembles them into a proposal package, and broadcasts it to other consensus nodes. The consensus nodes independently vote to express their preferences for different proposals in the package, execute the consensus output protocol to reach local consensus, and the primary node aggregates these results to form the global consensus. Once the global consensus is finalized, AP-PBFT evaluates node behavior based on the consensus output protocol, penalizes nodes that acted maliciously, and rewards those that adhered to the protocol. Additionally, nodes can interact and adopt different strategies while executing the consensus output protocol, which can influence the consensus outcome. Therefore, we established an evolutionary game model based on hypergraph to analyze these interactions. Theoretical analysis shows that the incentive mechanism in AP-PBFT effectively encourages nodes to honestly follow the consensus output protocol, ensuring that AP-PBFT satisfies the properties of consistency, validity, and termination. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate that the AP-PBFT algorithm possesses good scalability and the capability to handle dynamic changes in nodes, surpassing some mainstream consensus algorithms in terms of transaction throughput and consensus achievement time. Moreover, AP-PBFT can incentivize honest behavior among consensus nodes, thereby enhancing the reliability of consensus and strengthening the security of the network.
Sidra Tul Muntaha, Qasim Zeeshan Ahmed, Faheem A. Khan, Zaharias D. Zaharis · 5 authors
We propose a hybrid blockchain-based framework for multi-operator resource sharing and SLA management in 5G Standalone (5GSA) networks. Leveraging Hyperledger Fabric (HLF), we implement secure resource sharing between multiple seller Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and a single buyer MNO, evaluating HLF’s performance in terms of transaction latency and throughput. The framework incorporates a two-level Multi-Leader Single-Follower (MLSF) Stackelberg game to model pricing and buying strategies. For the upper-layer game, we determine the pricing strategies of seller MNOs using Pattern Search Algorithm (PSA), Genetic Algorithm (GA), and Fmincon, comparing their performances. In the lower-layer game, we design a Lagrange multiplier-based solution for the buyer MNO’s strategy, benchmarking it against PSA, GA, and Fmincon. Our framework also employs smart contracts for SLA automation and enforcement, utilizing Ethereum and IOTA-EVM blockchains. These contracts are implemented with Hardhat and deployed across Goerli, Linea-Goerli, Sepolia, Polygon (Mumbai), and Shimmer EVM Testnets. We measure key metrics, such as transaction latency and throughput, to evaluate the performance of our SLA management system. Results demonstrate the framework’s effectiveness in enhancing resource allocation and SLA enforcement in 5G networks, highlighting the capabilities of different blockchain platforms in managing complex network operations.
The immutability of blockchain has exposed its limitations in adapting to rapidly evolving legal requirements and preventing malicious misuse. To address these issues, transaction-level redactable blockchain solutions based on the policy-based chameleon hash (PCH) have been introduced. These solutions allow users to create transactions and encrypt trapdoors under specific attribute policies. However, current transaction-level rewriting schemes face two security challenges: Firstly, transactions encrypted with the invalid trapdoor are difficult to rewrite; Secondly, due to lacking version detection on transactions, malicious modifiers may rollback the version of the transaction to launch a reversion attack. In this paper, we present a resilient and redactable blockchain (RRB) with 2-level rewriting and transaction version detection. Specifically, we propose a new redactable blockchain structure that supports both transaction-level and block-level rewriting. To tackle the invalid trapdoor problem, we propose two protocols: a fine-grained, controllable transaction-level rewriting protocol and a centrally controlled block-level rewriting protocol. Moreover, for the transaction reversion attack, we design a version detection mechanism for RRB by using an accumulator. Through security analysis and performance evaluation, we demonstrate the security and practicality of our RRB scheme.
Mohsen Alambardar Meybodi, Amir Kafshdar Goharshady, M. R. Hooshmandasl, Ali Shakiba
Abstract In this work, we consider a combinatorial optimization problem with direct applications in blockchain mining, namely finding the most lucrative blocks for Bitcoin miners, and propose optimal algorithmic solutions. Our experiments show that our algorithms increase the miners’ revenues by more than a million dollars per month. Modern blockchains reward their miners in two ways: (i) a base reward for each block that is mined, and (ii) the transaction fees of those transactions that are included in the mined block. The base reward is fixed by the respective blockchain’s protocol and is not under the miner’s control. Hence, for a miner who wishes to maximize earnings, the fundamental problem is to form a valid block with maximal total transaction fees and then try to mine it. Moreover, in many protocols, including Bitcoin itself, the base reward halves at predetermined intervals, hence increasing the importance of maximizing transaction fees and mining an optimal block. This problem is further complicated by the fact that transactions can be prerequisites of each other or have conflicts (in case of double-spending). In this work, we consider the problem of forming an optimal block, i.e. a valid block with maximal total transaction fees, given a set of unmined transactions. On the theoretical side, we first formally model our problem as an extension of Knapsack and then show that, unlike classical Knapsack , our problem is strongly NP-hard. We also show a hardness-of-approximation result. As such, there is no hope in solving it efficiently for general instances. However, we observe that its real-world instances are quite sparse, i.e. the transactions have very few dependencies and conflicts. Using this fact, and exploiting three well-known graph sparsity parameters, namely treedepth, treewidth and pathwidth, we present exact linear-time parameterized algorithms that are applicable to the real-world instances and obtain optimal results. On the practical side, we provide an extensive experimental evaluation demonstrating that our approach vastly outperforms the current Bitcoin miners in practice, obtaining a significant per-block average increase of 11.34 percent in transaction fee revenues which amounts to almost one million dollars per month.
Consensus is one of the key components of Blockchain. Common public blockchains use Proof-Of-Work or Proof-Of-Stake as their consensus protocols. In contrast, private or consortium blockchains often use Raft, which is only crash fault tolerant. It means that strong trust on node holders in private or consortium blockchains is required. To relax the strong trust requirement, we propose by taking raft as foundation and modification on raft and leveraging threshold signature and trusted execution environment to improve security. We have implemented and integrated our proposed consensus algorithm with ConsenSys Quorum. Our experiment shows that our work has slight performance degradation on blockchain compared to original Raft.
Managing blood screening data is critical for healthcare, requiring secure and transparent systems to safeguard public health. Existing methods often lack secure access to donors' medical histories, posing risks. Hyperledger Fabric, a distributed ledger technology, offers a robust solution for managing health data securely. This paper proposes a decentralized blood screening system using Hyperledger Fabric to record transactions, donor, and recipient data, employing chaincode for eligibility checks. Its modular architecture ensures privacy, integrity, and immutability. The study explores how Hyperledger Fabric's architecture meets blood screening requirements, focusing on optimizing latency, throughput, and block space utilization through customized configurations. Experiments with Hyperledger Fabric v2.5 assessed performance by adjusting endorsement strategies and block sizes. The results, analyzed for performance differences, provide recommendations for tuning configuration factors like batch timeout and maximum message count. The Hyperledger Caliper tool was used to measure transaction throughput and latency, leading to optimized blockchain architecture for blood screening. Findings indicate that customized blockchain configurations can significantly enhance performance metrics crucial for real-time healthcare applications.
Blockchain and cloud technologies together constitute a major breakthrough in distributed systems architecture since they provide companies with unheard-of security, scalability, and operational efficiency. The symbiotic relationship between blockchain's immutable ledger system and cloud computing's scalable infrastructure is investigated in this article together with how their convergence opens fresh opportunities for business applications in supply chain management, financial services, and healthcare sectors. By means of the analysis of important architectural patterns, including Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) and hybrid storage solutions, it shows how this integration addresses conventional constraints while enabling creative features such as automated compliance, real-time settlement systems, and improved data management. The article also looks at technical issues in security, interoperability, and scalability and suggests ways to use the capabilities of both technologies. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and IoT combined with evolving industry standards point to a transforming effect on how companies handle and use data in the digital economy as this paradigm develops.
The Web3 ecosystem is increasingly evolving to multi-chain, with decentralized applications (dApps) distributing across different blockchains, which drives the need for cross-chain bridges for blockchain interoperability. However, it further opens new attack surfaces, and media outlets have reported serious attacks related to cross-chain bridges. Nevertheless, few prior research studies have studied cross-chain bridges and their related transactions, especially from a security perspective. To fill the void, this paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of cross-chain transactions. We first make efforts to create by far the largest cross-chain transaction dataset based on semantic analysis of popular cross-chain bridges, covering 13 decentralized bridges and 7 representative blockchains, with over 80 million transactions in total. Based on this comprehensive dataset, we present the landscape of cross-chain transactions from angles including token usage, user profile and the purposes of transactions, etc. We further observe that cross-chain bridges can be abused for malicious/aggressive purposes, thus we design an automated detector and deploy it in the wild to flag misbehaviors from millions of cross-chain transactions. We have identified hundreds of abnormal transactions related to exploits and arbitrages, etc. Our research underscores the prevalence of cross-chain ecosystems, unveils their characteristics, and proposes an effective detector for pinpointing security threats.
This paper presents a blockchain-based distributed fellowship management system incorporating Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) to verify candidate eligibility without exposing sensitive information. The system ensures that only qualified candidates who meet predefined criteria can receive fellowships, reducing the likelihood of fraudulent applications and administrative errors. Blockchain technology creates an immutable, decentralized ledger that provides transparency and accountability, while ABE ensures fine-grained access control over sensitive data. The integration of ZKP enhances privacy by allowing candidates to prove their eligibility without revealing personal details. This approach streamlines the fellowship verification process, lowers administrative burdens, and increases the dependability and fairness of the system. Our proposal delivers a secure, privacy-preserving solution for managing fellowships with improved efficiency and trust.