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Scaling Blockchain via a Lightweight Tree-based Sharding System

  • Zhenyu Guan
  • , Yang Zhang
  • , Shizhong Li
  • , Ruonan Chen
  • , Dawei Li
  • Beihang University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The scalability issue in blockchain seriously restricts the performance of blockchain and limits the practical development of blockchain applications. Existing schemes are mainly divided into blockchain sharding and off-chain payment channels. Blockchain sharding technology splits the blockchain network into multiple sub-networks, each of which is called a shard. Each shard contains only some nodes, which can independently verify, store, and process transactions in parallel, thus improving the performance and handling capacity of the system. Most of the existing shard technologies start from the complete shard type, dividing each shard in terms of storage and communication, in order to maximize the system handling capacity. However, these approaches also bring with them the processing burden of cross-shard transactions. This paper proposes a sharding system with a tree-based structure, dividing the shard system into i-shards and b-shards according to their respective functions. Combining these two features with the consensus approach in design, we reduce the communication and consensus complexity of cross- shard transaction processing. In addition, we use a lightweight storage design, which reduces the storage pressure on the system. Finally, we analyze the safety of the system during operation and investigate the pressure advantage of utilizing this particular structure. With 6,400 nodes and 32 shards in the system, we come up with a pretty good security guarantee.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2023 International Conference on Networking and Network Applications, NaNA 2023
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages397-403
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9798350327380
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event2023 International Conference on Networking and Network Applications, NaNA 2023 - Qingdao, China
Duration: 18 Aug 202321 Aug 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2023 International Conference on Networking and Network Applications, NaNA 2023

Conference

Conference2023 International Conference on Networking and Network Applications, NaNA 2023
Country/TerritoryChina
CityQingdao
Period18/08/2321/08/23

Keywords

  • Binary Tree
  • Blockchain
  • Lightweight
  • Scalability
  • Sharding

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