[Resource Topic] 2024/1794: How Much Public Randomness Do Modern Consensus Protocols Need?

Welcome to the resource topic for 2024/1794

Title:
How Much Public Randomness Do Modern Consensus Protocols Need?

Authors: Joseph Bonneau, Benedikt Bünz, Miranda Christ, Yuval Efron

Abstract:

Modern blockchain-based consensus protocols
aim for efficiency (i.e., low communication and round complexity) while maintaining security against adaptive adversaries.
These goals are usually achieved using a public randomness beacon to select roles for each participant.
We examine to what extent this randomness is necessary.
Specifically, we provide tight bounds on the amount of entropy a Byzantine Agreement protocol must consume from a beacon in order to enjoy efficiency and adaptive security.
We first establish that no consensus protocol can simultaneously be efficient, be adaptively secure, and use O(\log n) bits of beacon entropy. We then show this bound is tight and, in fact, a trilemma by presenting three consensus protocols that achieve any two of these three properties.

ePrint: https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1794

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