Authors
Yoad Lewenberg, Yonatan Sompolinsky, Aviv Zohar
Publication date
2015
Conference
Financial Cryptography and Data Security: 19th International Conference, FC 2015, San Juan, Puerto Rico, January 26-30, 2015, Revised Selected Papers 19
Pages
528-547
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Description
Distributed cryptographic protocols such as Bitcoin and Ethereum use a data structure known as the block chain to synchronize a global log of events between nodes in their network. Blocks, which are batches of updates to the log, reference the parent they are extending, and thus form the structure of a chain. Previous research has shown that the mechanics of the block chain and block propagation are constrained: if blocks are created at a high rate compared to their propagation time in the network, many conflicting blocks are created and performance suffers greatly. As a result of the low block creation rate required to keep the system within safe parameters, transactions take long to securely confirm, and their throughput is greatly limited.
We propose an alternative structure to the chain that allows for operation at much higher rates. Our structure consists of a directed acyclic graph of blocks (the …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
Y Lewenberg, Y Sompolinsky, A Zohar - Financial Cryptography and Data Security: 19th …, 2015