Abstract
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that provides an immutable record and store of transactions. Today, one of the key challenges facing blockchain technology is the time required to finalize transactions. Mass adoption of payment systems and the development of enterprise-class decentralized systems have created a demand for a significant acceleration of finalization time in blockchains’ networks, to facilitate fast and efficient transactions while maintaining security and performance. This article discusses the Waterfall platform, which is based on a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) architecture. Waterfall implements a two-level consensus protocol combining Ethereum’s approach with a new algorithm that provides single-slot finality. However, the optimistic consensus involves a security trade-off that requires the maintenance of network scalability and performance. The proposed protocol modifications aim to minimize the time of transaction finality by obtaining an optimal level of blockchain Coordinators’ support for slot finalization, building a simulation model for testing the modifications, and mitigating the problem of non-relayed transactions. The outcomes of this study will be incorporated into the Waterfall platform software, to enhance its dependability, efficiency, and security.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Sherman, A.T., Javani, F., Zhang, H., Golaszewski, E.: On the origins and variations of blockchain technologies. IEEE Secur. Priv. 17(1), 72–77 (2019)
Bhutta, M.N.M., et al.: A survey on blockchain technology: evolution architecture and security. IEEE Access 9, 61048–61073 (2021)
Anceaume, E., Pozzo, A., Rieutord, T., Tucci-Piergiovanni, S.: On finality in blockchains. arXiv:2012.10172v1 (2020). https://arxiv.org/pdf/2012.10172.pdf
Nakamoto, S.: Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system (2009)
Bitcoin Wiki: Confirmation. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Confirmation. Accessed 9 Mar 2023
Ethereum.org: Proof-of-stake (PoS) (2023). https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos. Accessed 9 Mar 2023
Werner, S.M., Perez, D., Gudgeon, L., Klages-Mundt, A., Harz, D., Knottenbelt, W.J.: SoK: decentralized finance (DeFi). arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.08778 (2021)
Waterfall: a Highly Scalable EVM-based Smart Contract Platform. https://waterfall.foundation. Accessed 9 Mar 2023
Grybniak, S., Dmytryshyn, D., Leonchyk, Y., Mazurok, I., Nashyvan, O., Shanin, R.: Waterfall: a scalable distributed ledger technology. In: IEEE 1st GET Blockchain Forum, California, United States (2022). In press
Grybniak, S.S., Leonchyk, Y.Y., Mazurok, I.Y., Nashyvan, O.S., Shanin, R.V.: Waterfall: Gozalandia. Distributed protocol with fast finality and proven safety and liveness. IET Blockchain 1–12, 465–472 (2023)
Lau, K.: Ethereum 2.0. An Introduction (2020)
Schwarz-Schilling, C., Neu, J., Monnot, B., Asgaonkar, A., Tas, E.N., Tse, D.: Three attacks on proof-of-stake ethereum. In: Eyal, I., Garay, J. (eds.) Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC 2022). LNCS, vol. 13411, pp. 560–576. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18283-9_28
D’Amato, F., Neu, J., Tas, E.N., Tse, D.: No more attacks on proof-of-stake ethereum? arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.03255 (2022)
Ethereum.org: Ethereum PoS Attack and Defense (2022). https://ethereum.org/da/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/attack-and-defense. Accessed 9 Mar 2023
Buterin, V.: Paths toward single-slot finality. https://notes.ethereum.org/@vbuterin/single_slot_finality#Paths-toward-single-slot-finality . Accessed 9 Mar 2023
D’Amato, F., Zanolini, L.: A simple single slot finality protocol for ethereum. arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.12745 (2023)
Mayfield, P.: Understanding binomial confidence intervals (1999). http://1989-6580.el-alt.com/binomial_confidence_interval.htm. Accessed 9 Mar 2023
Han, Y., Li, C., Li, P., Wu, M., Zhou, D., Long, F.: Shrec: bandwidth-efficient transaction relay in high-throughput blockchain systems. In: Proceedings of the 11th ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing, pp. 238–252 (2020)
Naumenko, G., Maxwell, G., Wuille, P., Fedorova, A., Beschastnikh, I.: Erlay: efficient transaction relay for bitcoin. In: Proceedings of the 2019 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 817–831 (2019)
Wang, X., Chen, Y., Zhang, Q.: Incentivizing cooperative relay in UTXO-based blockchain network. Comput. Netw. 185, 107631 (2021)
Zhang, J., Huang, Y.: TF: A blockchain system with incentivized transaction forwarding. In: IEEE 42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), Bologna, Italy, pp. 213–223 (2022)
Babaioff, M., Dobzinski, S., Oren, S., Zohar, A.: On bitcoin and red balloons. In: The 13th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, pp. 56–73 (2012)
Antonenko, O., Grybniak, S., Guzey, D., Nashyvan, O., Shanin, R: Subnetworks in BlockDAG. In: IEEE 1st GET Blockchain Forum, California, United States (2022)
Ethereum.org: Ethereum Wire Protocol (2022). https://github.com/ethereum/devp2p/blob/master/caps/eth.md. Accessed 9 Mar 2023
Grybniak, S., Leonchyk, Y., Masalskyi, R., Mazurok, I., Nashyvan, O.: Waterfall: Salto Collazo. Tokenomics. In: 2022 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain, Smart Healthcare and Emerging Technologies (SmartBlock4Health), Bucharest, Romania, pp. 1–6 (2022)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Grybniak, S., Leonchyk, Y., Mazurok, I., Vorokhta, A., Nashyvan, O., Shanin, R. (2023). Probabilistic Optimization of Optimistic Finality for the Waterfall Consensus Protocol. In: Machado, J.M., et al. Blockchain and Applications, 5th International Congress. BLOCKCHAIN 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 778. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45155-3_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45155-3_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-45154-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-45155-3
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)