Welcome to the resource topic for 2025/1115
Title:
High-Throughput Permissionless Blockchain Consensus under Realistic Network Assumptions
Authors: Sandro Coretti, Matthias Fitzi, Aggelos Kiayias, Giorgos Panagiotakos, Alexander Russell
Abstract:Throughput, i.e., the amount of payload data processed per unit of
time, is a crucial measure of scalability for blockchain consensus
mechanisms. This paper revisits the design of secure,
high-throughput proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols in the
\emph{permissionless} setting. Existing high-throughput protocols
are either analyzed using overly simplified network models or are
designed for permissioned settings, with the task of adapting them
to a permissionless environment while maintaining both scalability
and adaptive security (which is essential in permissionless
environments) remaining an open question.
Two particular challenges arise when designing high-throughput
protocols in a permissionless setting: \emph{message bursts}, where
the adversary simultaneously releases a large volume of withheld
protocol messages, and—in the PoS setting—\emph{message
equivocations}, where the adversary diffuses arbitrarily many
versions of a protocol message. It is essential for the security of
the ultimately deployed protocol that these issues be captured by
the network model.
Therefore, this work first introduces a new, realistic network model
based on the operation of real-world gossip networks—the standard
means of diffusion in permissionless systems, which may involve
many thousands of nodes. The model specifically addresses challenges
such as message bursts and PoS equivocations and is also of
independent interest.
The second and main contribution of this paper is Leios, a
blockchain protocol that transforms any underlying low-throughput
base protocol into a blockchain achieving a throughput corresponding
to a (1-\delta)-fraction of the network capacity—while affecting
latency only by a related constant. In particular, if the
underlying protocol has constant expected settlement time, this
property is retained under the Leios overlay. Combining Leios with
any permissionless protocol yields the first near-optimal throughput
permissionless ``layer-1’’ blockchain protocol proven secure under
realistic network assumptions.
ePrint: https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1115
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