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Addressing the Performance of Blockchain by Discussing Sharding Techniques
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Computer Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9801-7625
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Embedded Internet Systems Lab.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4031-2872
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Computer Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0244-3561
2023 (English)In: Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Electrical, Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (ICECCME), IEEE, 2023Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Blockchain technology is extensively used for cryptocurrencies and is considered for industrial applications due to features like decentralization, anonymity, and a tamper-proof history of transactions. However, the well-known blockchain trilemma of being unable to simultaneously meet the properties of decentralization, security, and scalability (DSS) negatively impacts widespread acceptance. Numerous solutions have been put forward in response to this challenge, aiming to increase performance and scalability while retaining the decentralized and trustless aspects. They range from introducing off-chain technologies to changing consensus algorithms and on-chain data structures. One of the most effective methods to accomplish horizontal scalability along with the growing network size could be sharding, which involves dividing the network of nodes into numerous shards or channels. The overhead of repetitive communication, storage, and processing at each node is decreased by this technique. This paper explores various sharding approaches to solve performance issues regarding blockchain. We review recent sharding technologies, including Polkadot, Ethereum Casper, and Cardano Hydra. We discuss the performance challenges of blockchains and provide essential insights into the tradeoffs.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE, 2023.
Keywords [en]
Blockchain, Scalability, Throughput, Latency, Off Chain Solution, Sharding
National Category
Computer Sciences
Research subject
Pervasive Mobile Computing; Cyber-Physical Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-96372DOI: 10.1109/ICECCME57830.2023.10252191Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85174061587ISBN: 979-8-3503-2298-9 (print)ISBN: 979-8-3503-2297-2 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-96372DiVA, id: diva2:1750054
Conference
2023 3rd International Conference on Electrical, Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (ICECCME), July 19-21, 2023, Tenerife, Spain
Projects
Cloudberry Datacenters
Funder
Swedish Energy Agency, 43090-2
Note

This article has previously appeared as a manuscript in a thesis.

Available from: 2023-09-25 Created: 2023-04-12 Last updated: 2024-11-20Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Tradeoff Analysis and Sharding of Blockchain Technology
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Tradeoff Analysis and Sharding of Blockchain Technology
2023 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Blockchain is a secured, shared, and distributed ledger system that records and tracks resources without requiring a centrally trusted authority. In addition to cryptocurrency, blockchain can be used for supply chain, logistics, healthcare, energy industries, and other financial services.

However, blockchain technology faces several challenges, including energy consumption, security risks, governance, performance, and scalability. Hence, the government and private sectors are yet to consider blockchain-based solutions as a sustainable approach to building their business models. Addressing these challenges will enable blockchain technology to reach its full potential and become a transformative force in various industries. Scalability is a major challenge in blockchain, as reaching consensus when there is a large number of participating nodes requires significant computational power or complex repetitive communications among the nodes. This issue could be addressed with blockchain sharding.

This thesis investigates various opportunities, challenges, and tradeoffs related to blockchain technologies. Based on the governance model and quality attributes, we provide a tradeoff analysis considering technical properties, such as the performance and important architectural considerations about blockchain systems. Furthermore, we address the scalability issues regarding traditional blockchain solutions and identify the possibilities of sharding solutions to improve the performance and scalability of blockchain. Sharding is a technique to improve scalability by dividing the network into smaller parts called shards. Sharding allows blockchain networks to process more transactions per second (TPS) by distributing the workload across different nodes in the network. While sharding can improve the scalability of blockchain networks, it introduces some new challenges due to the consensus process and the requirements to maintain consistency between shards, which are part of our studies.

There are six major contributions. First, we conduct a literature survey of blockchain from the applications, challenges, and opportunities perspective. It presents some tradeoffs of blockchain, a comparison among different consensus mechanisms, and discusses challenges, including scalability, privacy, interoperability, energy consumption, and regulatory issues. Second, we evaluate the mobility gap for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging transactions by leveraging blockchain-based solutions. We also present a proof of concept using the Hyperledger consortium platform to evaluate the technical feasibility of the proposed approach. Third, we present a quantitative performance and scalability analysis of some popular private blockchain platforms, including Ethereum Quorum, Corda, and Hyperledger Fabric. Fourth, we propose a taxonomy guideline that provides critical insights for determining a suitable blockchain platform. Fifth, we propose a guideline and Applicability Analysis Framework (AAF) to determine whether an application needs a blockchain solution or not. This framework is designed to ingest detailed user requirements to perform a weighted evaluation built on mathematical constructs to determine the scenario in which a blockchain-based solution is appropriate. Finally, we present a review of recent sharding technologies, including Polkadot, Ethereum Casper, and Cardano Hydra to discuss the performance challenges of blockchains and provide important insights on the tradeoffs regarding blockchain trilemma: Decentralization, Security, and Scalability (DSS).

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Luleå: Luleå University of Technology, 2023
Series
Doctoral thesis / Luleå University of Technology 1 jan 1997 → …, ISSN 1402-1544
Keywords
Blockchain, tradeoff, sharding
National Category
Computer Systems
Research subject
Pervasive Mobile Computing
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-96980 (URN)978-91-8048-333-9 (ISBN)978-91-8048-334-6 (ISBN)
Public defence
2023-06-16, A193, Luleå tekniska universitet, Skellefteå, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2023-05-03 Created: 2023-05-03 Last updated: 2024-08-12Bibliographically approved

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Monrat, Ahmed AfifSchelén, OlovAndersson, Karl

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