Ole Delzer, Richard Hobeck, Ingo Weber, Dominik Kaaser · 6 authors
Abstract The growing popularity of blockchains highlights the need to improve their scalability. While previous research has focused on scaling transaction processing, the scalability of transaction creation remains unexplored. This issue is particularly important for organizations needing to send large volumes of transactions quickly or continuously. Scaling transaction creation is challenging, especially for blockchain platforms like Ethereum, which require transactions to include a sequence number. This paper proposes four different methods to scale transaction creation. Our experimental evaluation assesses the scalability and latency of these methods, identifying two as feasible for scaling transaction creation. Additionally, we provide an in-depth theoretical analysis of these two methods.
Engin Zeydan, Luis Blanco, Josep Mangues‐Bafalluy, Şuayb S. Arslan · 5 authors
Blockchain Network (BCN)-based Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) has recently surfaced as an identity and access management framework that allows users and organizations to control over their data. On the other hand, Open Radio Access Networks (O-RANs) propose a framework for facilitating the exchange of infrastructure-related data. This study presents the critical role of BCN-SSI in the O-RAN system architecture and promises an authentication process to provide insights into the robust security measures used to seamlessly establish the identification of users and entities within the O-RAN ecosystem in the post-quantum era. We show that the integration of BCN-SSI enhances security protocols and ensures the integrity of communication networks in the evolving technological landscape. As an illustrative use case, spectrum sharing, is also presented to demonstrate the practicality and the impact of the proposed framework. Furthermore, we address the potential threats posed by quantum attacks on BCN-based SSI systems by investigating Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed BCN-based DIM and highlight its role in securing identity management processes within the O-RAN context. Finally, we address the use of efficient computational techniques in the context of PQC, which holds significant potential in terms of reducing energy consumption overall.
The account allocation mechanism is a crucial component affecting the performance of sharding blockchain systems. A well-designed account allocation mechanism must reduce the number of cross-shard transactions while balancing the workload across shards. State-of-the-art mechanisms, which are semi-static, typically adjust account partitions based on historical transactions at regular intervals. However, in real-world applications, unpredictable new scenarios in historical transactions or sudden workload changes can impact shard performance. These existing mechanisms can neither foresee such scenarios to avoid cross-shard transactions nor dynamically adjust account partitions to improve workload issues, leading to suboptimal performance until the next re-allocation. To this end, we propose Orbit, a dynamic account allocation mechanism based on the pending transactions in the pool. Orbit can promptly detect new situations and changes in pending transactions and provide updated allocation strategies. Moreover, through its off-chain scheduling mechanism, Orbit can deploy these strategies before transaction packaging to enhance shard performance. Experimental results show that compared to the state-of-the-art allocation mechanisms, Orbit improves throughput by 2.02 times, reduces cross-shard transactions to 11.9%, and achieves a more balanced shard workload. Additionally, Orbit excels in various other aspects, including latency, transaction queue size, and bandwidth overhead, outperforming the state-of-the-art mechanisms.
Abstract Blockchain technology has gained attention in recent times owing to its ability to revolutionize traditional trade through its distributed ledger attribute. The prompt advancement of blockchain demands new systematic studies to investigate and analyze the existing knowledge in this domain. In the current work, the present standing and emerging trends of blockchain have been analyzed to direct both new and experienced researchers in establishing a baseline for future research projects. Likewise, the research advancement of consensus protocol was reviewed with a particular emphasis on their security perspective. Accordingly, the attributes, appropriate scenarios, and probable weaknesses of different consensus protocols and their future trends were reviewed. This helps in scrutinizing how blockchain technology can be applied to a variety of emerging fields, including economics, healthcare, information systems, wireless networks, and smart grids. Additionally, the current evaluation provides a throughout discussion of blockchain applications in various fields. Finally, the paper offers a brief insight into limitations and prospective future development in this domain. Overall, the aim is to aid newbies in investigating and scheming new solutions while considering the present demands and issues.
In addressing the significant challenges caused by the expansion of data storage needs in blockchain systems, this paper explores the integration of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) with Substrate-based blockchain. By leveraging IPFS for off-chain storage and Substrate for on-chain operations, this system addresses the key challenges such as bloated storage, inefficiency, and accessibility while preserving data distribution and privacy. Through a comparative analysis with an Ethereum-based system, this study reveals significant advantages of the Substrate-IPFS solution. There is a significant reduction in data storage size and faster block confirmation times, leading to potentially lower transaction costs. The proposed approach enhances data privacy through the use of the Blake2 hashing algorithm. Overall, this research showcases the potential of Substrate-IPFS integration in overcoming the limitations of traditional blockchain storage approaches. Further exploration into the storage cost optimisation within the Substrate framework and additional functionalities using modular pallets could pave the way for significant advancements in the distributed data storage.
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has revolutionized network management by providing unprecedented flexibility, control, and efficiency. However, its centralized architecture introduces critical security vulnerabilities. This paper presents an innovative approach to securing SDN environments using IOTA 2.0 smart contracts. The proposed system leverages the IOTA Tangle, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure, to enhance scalability and efficiency while eliminating transaction fees and reducing energy consumption. We introduce three smart contracts—Authority, Access Control, and DoS Detector—to ensure secure network operations, prevent unauthorized access, and mitigate denial-of-service attacks. Through comprehensive simulations using Mininet and the ShimmerEVM IOTA Test Network, we demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in enhancing SDN security. Our findings highlight the potential of IOTA 2.0 smart contracts to provide a robust, decentralized solution for securing SDN environments, paving the way for further integration of blockchain technologies in network management.
Recent advancements in Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) lead to efficient service provisions, such as eco-friendly environment, demand response management, charging, and discharging to the end-users. However, security and privacy preservation for the aforementioned services are key challenges keeping in view of the dependency on the existing centralized security architectures which are not resilient to fault tolerance due to a single point of failure. Hence, there is a need to design new efficient security solutions for the current V2G network, so as to provide seamless services to the end-users. Motivated by these, in this work, we proposed a bloom filter-enabled smart contract-based scheme for access control in V2G environment. In comparison to complex signature-based cryptographic techniques, we propose bloom filter-based authentication for the registered nodes for efficient storage and searching of stored data on the blockchain network. We also designed the Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism, which selects authority nodes dynamically to verify various transactions on the blockchain network. To validate the proposal, we implemented it on the Ethereum network on benchmark datasets using various evaluation parameters such as- latency, throughput, false positive probability, and gas cost.
Juncal Uriol, Álvaro Camacho, Pablo Angueira, Jon Montalbán · 6 authors
The arrival of 5 G networks has introduced an era of unprecedented connectivity characterised by high speeds and low latency. The need for efficient resource utilisation and sharing becomes paramount within this landscape. The resource sharing within $\mathbf{5 G}$ networks and beyond explores the feasibility of establishing a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)-enabled Marketplace. This paper comprehensively analyses three prominent DLTs facilitating a robust Marketplace tailored for efficient resource sharing within the high-speed and dynamic environment of 5 G networks. As the foundational technologies underlying various decentralised systems, these DLTs have gained substantial attention for their potential to revolutionise industries and reshape how data and transactions are managed. The comprehensive analysis delves into multiple facets: scalability, security, decentralisation, transaction throughput, consensus mechanisms and energy efficiency. Evaluating the strengths and limitations of each technology in these domains facilitates a deeper understanding of their suitability for diverse use cases.
Michał Król, Onur Ascigil, Sergi Reñé, Alberto Sonnino · 8 authors
The Ethereum Global Network (EGN) hosts a complete ecosystem of decentralized services, including blockchains such as Ethereum mainnet but also exchange markets, content delivery networks, and many more. Service discovery is a fundamental mechanism in the EGN, allowing new nodes to look up and connect to other nodes already participating in one of these services. The current service discovery of the EGN, DISCv5, is not scalable and efficient enough to support the current and future needs of the ecosystem. We present DISC-NG, a novel service discovery protocol for the EGN that is scalable, efficient, and secure. DISC-NG leverages the EGN-wide DHT to allow service participation advertisements to meet service discovery requests. DISC-NG compensates the unbalance in service popularity and minimizes the potential for abuse by malicious nodes. We implement DISC-NG in devp2p, the network stack used by the majority of clients connecting to the EGN, as well as in a large-scale simulator. DISC-NG can discover services in the EGN faster than DISCv5 while being more robust to malicious nodes. DISC-NG is now in a staging phase and scheduled for deployment as an improvement to DISCv5.
Blockchain technology, known for its decentralized and immutable nature, serves as the foundation for various applications. As a prominent application of blockchain, decentralized storage is powered by blockchain technology and is expected to provide a reliable and cost-effective alternative to traditional centralized storage. A major challenge in blockchain-powered decentralized storage is how to guarantee the quality of storage services in decentralized storage nodes (DSNs). Storage auditing can ensure the integrity and security of the stored data. Unfortunately, it incurs additional computational costs for data owners and extra storage overheads for DSNs, which thereby cannot be directly applied to decentralized storage networks consisting of nodes with various computation and storage capacity. In this article, we overcome these problems and minimize additional burdens in storage auditing. We propose EDCOMA, a computation and storage efficient auditing scheme for blockchain-based decentralized storage, in which a double compression method is designed to compress data authenticators using both data and polynomial commitment. To prevent replay attacks on double compression launched by DSNs, we introduce zero knowledge proof and design a compression arithmetic circuit to guarantee the execution of compression operations in DSNs. We analyze the security of EDCOMA under the random oracle model and conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of EDCOMA. Experimental results affirm that EDCOMA outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in both computational and storage efficiency.
Carlos E. B. Santos, Lucileide M. D. da Silva, Matheus F. Torquato, Sérgio N. Silva · 5 authors
This work proposes an implementation of the SHA-256, the most common blockchain hash algorithm, on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to improve processing capacity and power saving in Internet of Things (IoT) devices to solve security and privacy issues. This implementation presents a different approach than other papers in the literature, using clustered cores executing the SHA-256 algorithm in parallel. Details about the proposed architecture and an analysis of the resources used by the FPGA are presented. The implementation achieved a throughput of approximately 1.4 Gbps for 16 cores on a single FPGA. Furthermore, it saved dynamic power, using almost 1000 times less compared to previous works in the literature, making this proposal suitable for practical problems for IoT devices in blockchain environments. The target FPGA used was the Xilinx Virtex 6 xc6vlx240t-1ff1156.
The surge in blockchain-based cryptocurrencies has created a pressing need for Cross-Chain Transaction (CCTx) solutions. Existing solutions either lack sufficient security, like centralized exchanges, or suffer from poor efficiency and scalability, such as atomic swaps. Inspired by the success of the Lightning Network in accelerating Bitcoin transactions, we propose CrossChannel that establishes cross-and-off-chain micropayment channels to achieve efficient and scalable CCTx. Specifically, we analyze the challenges of extending one-chain channels to cross-chain scenarios caused by the separation of blockchains. To overcome these challenges, we employ the chain relay mechanism to synchronize channel-related information across blockchains and construct the channel management protocol on this basis, ensuring the same security level as one-chain channels in cross-chain settings. We prototype CrossChannel between two Ethereum testnets, comparing its transaction efficiency and costs with a typical HTLC-swap scheme. Results demonstrate the significant advancements in efficiency and scalability offered by CrossChannel. Even with channels closing after just 20 transactions, CrossChannel exhibits a fivefold capacity increase for handling CCTxs compared to HTLC swaps.
Abstract The introduction of blockchain technology has brought about significant transformation in the realm of digital transactions, providing a secure and transparent platform for peer-to-peer interactions that cannot be tampered with. The decentralised and distributed nature of blockchains guarantees the integrity and authenticity of the data, eliminating the need for intermediaries. The applications of this technology are not limited to the financial sector, but extend to various areas, such as supply chain management, identity verification, and governance. At the core of these blockchains is the consensus mechanism, which plays a crucial role in ensuring the reliability and integrity of a system. Consensus mechanisms are essential for achieving an agreement amongst network participants regarding the validity of transactions and the order in which they are recorded on the blockchain. By incorporating consensus mechanisms, blockchains ensure that all honest nodes in the network reach a consensus on whether to accept or reject a block, based on predefined rules and criteria. The aim of this study is to introduce a novel consensus mechanism named Erdos, which seeks to address the shortcomings of existing consensus algorithms, such as the Proof of Work and Proof of Stake. Erdos emphasises security, decentralisation, and fairness. One notable feature of this mechanism is its equitable node-selection algorithm, which ensures equal opportunities for all nodes to engage in block creation and validation. In addition, Erdos implements a deterministic block finalisation process that guarantees the integrity and authenticity of the blockchain. The main contribution of this research lies in its innovative approach to deterministic block finalisation, which effectively mitigates the various security risks associated with blockchain systems.
Ethereum, as one of today's most active blockchain platforms, provides extensive data for academic interest, thanks to its transparency and has garnered broad academic interest. Many studies model Ethereum transaction records as graph structures and design models to analyze phishing address transaction features. However, they often neglect the deep network structure of transaction sub-calls and lack efficient random walk strategies for optimal subgraph sampling. Therefore, this study introduces PR-Graph2vec, a PageRank- based graph embedding algorithm that captures the topological features of network phishing attacks from both the contract and sub-call perspectives, thereby improving phishing address detection. We extracted all transactions labeled as phishing from the blockchain explorer EtherScan to build a transaction network graph. Then, by aggregating the features of transaction call types and account types, we performed in-depth feature mining on transaction sub-calls. Finally, we used PageRank for biased sampling, significantly reducing the graph size. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed Ethereum phishing detection model, PR-Graph2vec, excels in practical applications, achieving 91.0% precision and an 86.9% F1-score.
Information-centric networking (ICN) has received a wide attention as a next-generation network. Unlike conventional IP networks, which forward packets based on IP addresses, ICNs packets are sent based on the name of the contents which are cached to the routers involved, then delivered to the consumer. Since any participating party can upload content to the ICN, the risk of content poisoning attack (CPA) is ever-present. In CPA, an attacker degrades the cache efficiency by uploading fake content under a real name posting as a legitimate publisher. As a countermeasure to CPA, many existing methods determine the legitimacy of content using digital signatures with public keys, and alerts routers of unjustified content upon detection. However, it is difficult for them to detect fake-CPA attacks which use public keys of fabricated content to generate digital signatures. Most methods also lack counter-measures to spoofed fake-CPA attacks, in which the certification authority (CA) that manages the public key or its staff member colludes with the attacker to rewrite the legitimate publisher’s public key to the attacker’s and inject fake contents that pretends to be authentic contents that are high in popularity into the cache. In this paper, we propose a method to prevent the spoofed fake-CPA by managing content names with IOTA, a distributed ledger technology that blocks tampering of contents registered on the system. We also numerically compare the search time and memory requirement of four search methods that search content names managed in the ledger in the proposed method. As a result, we confirm the trade-off between the search time and memory requirement.
David Guzman, Dirk Trossen, Trinh Viet Doan, Joerg Ott
In distributed consensus systems (DCSs), a single peer exposes functionality to other peers to agree on a shared state for a computational problem, such as for cryptocurrencies and distributed file systems. We observe, however, that this original, peer-centric model has evolved towards deploying several peers at a single network location, thus exposing the same DCS services many times, driven by the fees and rewards that can be gained by doing so. We refer to this trend as the service-centric model and provide in our paper evidence for this trend, its growth, and its impact on DCS operations, using empirical observations in the Ethereum system. Specifically, we shed light on the opposing observations of increasing reliance on highly available cloud infrastructures and large numbers of non-reachability events in the DCS. We provide recommendations on how to tackle this impact through changes to the Ethereum platform and identifier generation, believing that those recommendations and our empirical observations provide useful insights for building resilient and bias-free DePIN platforms.
O presente artigo emprega a abordagem Kitchenham para realizar um mapeamento sistemático das técnicas de escalonamento presentes na blockchain Ethereum. O estudo focou em analisar as vantagens e desvantagens de sete das soluções mais populares, incluindo: sharding, state channel, sidechains, plasma, validium, rollup zk e otimista. Os resultados indicam que as técnicas mapeadas oferecem benefícios, como aumento da capacidade de transações e redução dos custos. No entanto, também apresentam limitações e riscos que afetam a segurança da rede.
With the evolution of Web3.0 and decentralized applications (Dapps), increasing business logic is running on the blockchain. Blockchain storage, as the core infrastructure supporting the increasing volume of data, plays a crucial role. However, the performance and cost of blockchain storages are suffering seriously, which inspires us to re-examine the design of blockchain storage based on the blockchain data characteristics. We propose LETUS, a Log-structured Efficient Trusted Universal Storage for blockchain, providing cryptographic tamper evidence with excellent performance and resource efficiency. (1) LETUS breaks the traditional two-layered architecture and pushes down the Authenticated Data Structure (ADS) into the storage engine to enable fine-grained I/O optimizations. (2) LETUS proposes DMM-Tree which is a novel ADS combining the functionalities of Merkle tree and delta-encoding, significantly reducing storage consumption. (3) LETUS adopts a version-based indexing schema and manages the large volume of pages generated by ADS in a page store indexed by a B-tree variant. (4) LETUS provides a universal solution for different blockchains, such as public blockchains like Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and AntChain as a representation of consortium blockchains. LETUS has been deployed in AntChain commercial applications, such as NFT and digital torch ignition for 2023 Asian Games. Experimental results also show that with LETUS, AntChain can achieve up to 15.8× improvement in throughput and 80.3% storage cost saving, Ethereum can achieve up to 10.1× improvement in throughput and 75.0% storage cost saving.
Sharding is an important technology that utilizes group parallelism to enhance the scalability and performance of blockchain. However, the existing solutions use a historical transaction-based approach to reallocate shards, which cannot handle temporary overload and incurs additional overhead during the reallocation process. To this end, this paper proposes LMChain, an efficient load-migratable beacon-based sharding blockchain system. The primary goal of LMChain is to eliminate reliance on historical transactions and achieve the high performance. Specifically, we redesign the state maintenance data structure in Beacon Shard to effectively manage all account states at the shard level. Then, we innovatively propose a load-migratable transaction processing protocol built upon the new data structure. To mitigate read-write conflicts during the selection of migration transactions, we adopt a novel graph partitioning scheme. We also adopt a relay-based method to handle cross-shard transactions and resolve inter-shard state read-write conflicts. We implement the LMChain prototype and conducted experiments in a real network environment comprising 17 cloud servers. Experimental results show that, compared with state-of-the-art solutions, LMChain effectively reduces the average transaction wait latency of overloaded transactions by 30% to 48% in different cases within 16 transaction shards, while improving throughput by 3% to 10%.