An Accelerated Method for Message Propagation in Blockchain Networks

Blockchain is based on a P2P network, supporting decentralized consensus of current cryptocurrencies. Since bitcoin and altcoins all utilize an underlying blockchain, they are therefore greatly affected by the performance of the P2P network. In bitcoin, the miners are engaged in a time-sensitive competition to solve a Proof-of-Work problem to extend the blockchain. This consequently raises a critical problem to minimize the time between the propagation of a winning block and the beginning of the next round of the competition. This paper proposes a method that selects a node's closest neighbors to make messages propagate in the whole network in time. The method measures the distance from a node to its neighbor using transmission latency; thus, the lower the latency, the closer the neighbor. Simulations showed a good rate of decrease in average propagation latency and maximum propagation latency, compared to the classic method. Furthermore, this paper not only proposes the principle of establishing connections based on latency, but also evaluates the influence of the number of simultaneously established connections.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1608.03759 by other author

MTFS: Merkle-Tree-Based File System

The blockchain technology has been changing our daily lives since Bitcoin - i.e., the first decentralized cryptocurrency - was invented and released as open-source software by an unidentified person or a group called Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Of many applications which can be implemented based on the blockchain, storage is an important one, a notable example of which is the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). IPFS is a distributed web based on a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol to make the web faster, safer, and more open and focuses on public accessible files. To provide a solution for private file storage in the blockchain way, in this paper we propose a Merkle-tree-based File System (MTFS). In MTFS, the blockchain is more than a trust machine; it is an abstract of a cluster system. Distributed random nodes form a tree network cluster without a central controller to provide a secure private storage service and faster message propagation. Advance proxy re-encryption algorithm is applied to guarantee secure file exchanges under permission. Merkle tree will make sure that the files are distributed among the service nodes in a balanced way. The proposed MTFS can be used not only for personal file storage and exchange but also for industry requiring mutual trust in file uploading and downloading in making contracts like insurances.Comment: 4 pages, conferenc