3 research outputs found
Blockchain moderated by empty blocks to reduce the energetic impact of crypto-moneys
While cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications continue to gain
popularity, their energy cost is evidently becoming unsustainable. In most
instances, the main cost comes from the required amount of energy for the
Proof-of-Work, and this cost is inherent to the design. In addition, useless
costs from discarded work (e.g., the so-called Forks) and lack of scalability
(in number of users and in rapid transactions) limit their practical
effectiveness.
In this paper, we present an innovative scheme which eliminates the nonce and
thus the burden of the Proof-of-Work which is the main cause of the energy
waste in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. We prove that our scheme guarantees
a tunable and bounded average number of simultaneous mining whatever the size
of the population in competition, thus by making the use of nonce-based
techniques unnecessary, achieves scalability without the cost of consuming a
large volume of energy. The technique used in the proof of our scheme is based
on the analogy of the analysis of a green leader election. The additional
difference with Proof-of-Work schemes (beyond the suppression of the nonce
field that is triggering most of the waste), is the introduction of (what we
denote as) "empty blocks" which aim are to call regular blocks following a
staircase set of values. Our scheme reduces the risk of Forks and provides
tunable scalability for the number of users and the speed of block generation.
We also prove using game theoretical analysis that our scheme is resilient to
unfair competitive investments (e.g., "51 percent" attack) and block nursing.Comment: preliminary version appeared in CryBlock'2019, The IEEE 2nd Workshop
on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems (co-located with
INFOCOM 2019), April 29th, 2019. Paris, France. Green Mining: toward a less
energetic impact of cryptocurrencies, P. Jacquet and B. Mans, IEEE Press, 6
page
Blockchain moderated by empty blocks to reduce the energetic impact of crypto-moneys
International audienceWhile cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications continue to gain popularity, their energy cost is evidently becoming unsustainable. In most instances, the main cost comes from the required amount of energy for the Proof-of-Work, and this cost is inherent to the design. In addition, useless costs from discarded work (e.g., the so-called Forks) and lack of scalability (in number of users and in rapid transactions) limit their practical effectiveness. In this paper, we present an innovative scheme which eliminates the nonce and thus the burden of the Proof-of-Work which is the main cause of the energy waste in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. We prove that our scheme guarantees a tunable and bounded average number of simultaneous mining whatever the size of the population in competition, thus by making the use of nonce-based techniques unnecessary, achieves scalability without the cost of consuming a large volume of energy. The technique used in the proof of our scheme is based on the analogy of the analysis of a green leader election. The additional difference with Proof-of-Work schemes (beyond the suppression of the nonce field that is triggering most of the waste), is the introduction of (what we denote as) "empty blocks" which aim are to call regular blocks following a staircase set of values. Our scheme reduces the risk of Forks and provides tunable scalability for the number of users and the speed of block generation. We also prove using game theoretical analysis that our scheme is resilient to unfair competitive investments (e.g., "51 percent" attack) and block nursing