The Impact of Block Parameters on the Throughput and Security of Blockchains

Elham Akbari; Wenbing Zhao; Shunkun Yang; Xiong Luo

doi:10.1145/3390566.3391673

The Impact of Block Parameters on the Throughput and Security of Blockchains

Elham Akbari
, Wenbing Zhao
, Shunkun Yang
, Xiong Luo

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

It has been well recognized that traditional blockchains have limited throughput. It is intuitive to achieve higher throughput by increasing the block size and shortening the block interval. In this paper, we study the security implications on doing so, and define the boundary for acceptable block sizes and block intervals. We define the security of the blockchain in terms of the stale block rate in the network and carry out an empirical study using a blockchain simulator to find the optimal block parameters (i.e., size and interval). We show that it is possible to achieve sufficiently high throughput for a blockchain platform to be used for activities beyond cryptocurrency, such as state-level electronic voting.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Place of Publication	usa
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	13-18
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450377676
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3390566.3391673
State	Published - Mar 12 2020
Event	2nd International Conference on Blockchain Technology, ICBCT 2020 - Hilo, United States Duration: Mar 12 2020 → Mar 14 2020

Conference

Conference	2nd International Conference on Blockchain Technology, ICBCT 2020
Country/Territory	United States
City	Hilo
Period	03/12/20 → 03/14/20

Keywords

Blockchain
Distributed consensus
Proof of stake
Proof of work

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10.1145/3390566.3391673

Cite this

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title = "The Impact of Block Parameters on the Throughput and Security of Blockchains",

abstract = "It has been well recognized that traditional blockchains have limited throughput. It is intuitive to achieve higher throughput by increasing the block size and shortening the block interval. In this paper, we study the security implications on doing so, and define the boundary for acceptable block sizes and block intervals. We define the security of the blockchain in terms of the stale block rate in the network and carry out an empirical study using a blockchain simulator to find the optimal block parameters (i.e., size and interval). We show that it is possible to achieve sufficiently high throughput for a blockchain platform to be used for activities beyond cryptocurrency, such as state-level electronic voting.",

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author = "Elham Akbari and Wenbing Zhao and Shunkun Yang and Xiong Luo",

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doi = "10.1145/3390566.3391673",

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AU - Akbari, Elham

AU - Zhao, Wenbing

AU - Yang, Shunkun

AU - Luo, Xiong

PY - 2020/3/12

Y1 - 2020/3/12

N2 - It has been well recognized that traditional blockchains have limited throughput. It is intuitive to achieve higher throughput by increasing the block size and shortening the block interval. In this paper, we study the security implications on doing so, and define the boundary for acceptable block sizes and block intervals. We define the security of the blockchain in terms of the stale block rate in the network and carry out an empirical study using a blockchain simulator to find the optimal block parameters (i.e., size and interval). We show that it is possible to achieve sufficiently high throughput for a blockchain platform to be used for activities beyond cryptocurrency, such as state-level electronic voting.

AB - It has been well recognized that traditional blockchains have limited throughput. It is intuitive to achieve higher throughput by increasing the block size and shortening the block interval. In this paper, we study the security implications on doing so, and define the boundary for acceptable block sizes and block intervals. We define the security of the blockchain in terms of the stale block rate in the network and carry out an empirical study using a blockchain simulator to find the optimal block parameters (i.e., size and interval). We show that it is possible to achieve sufficiently high throughput for a blockchain platform to be used for activities beyond cryptocurrency, such as state-level electronic voting.

KW - Blockchain

KW - Distributed consensus

KW - Proof of stake

KW - Proof of work

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M3 - Conference contribution

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BT - ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

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T2 - 2nd International Conference on Blockchain Technology, ICBCT 2020

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ER -

The Impact of Block Parameters on the Throughput and Security of Blockchains

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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