Publication Details

StrongChain: Transparent and Collaborative Proof-of-Work Consensus

HOMOLIAK Ivan. StrongChain: Transparent and Collaborative Proof-of-Work Consensus. In: Proceedings of The 28th USENIX Security Symposium. Santa Clara, 2019, pp. 819-836. ISBN 978-1-939133-06-9. Available from: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec19-szalachowski.pdf
Czech title
bezpečnost
Type
conference paper
Language
english
Authors
Homoliak Ivan, Ing., Ph.D. (DITS FIT BUT)
URL
Keywords

Bitcoin, proof-of-work, selfish mining, timestamp accuracy

Abstract

Bitcoin is the most successful cryptocurrency so far. This is mainly due to its novel consensus algorithm, which is based on proof-of-work combined with a cryptographically-protected data structure and a rewarding scheme that incentivizes nodes to participate. However, despite its unprecedented success Bitcoin suffers from many inefficiencies. For instance, Bitcoin's consensus mechanism has been proved to be incentive-incompatible, its high reward variance causes centralization, and its hardcoded deflation raises questions about its long-term sustainability. In this work, we revise the Bitcoin consensus mechanism by proposing StrongChain, a scheme that introduces transparency and incentivizes participants to collaborate rather than to compete. The core design of our protocol is to reflect and utilize the computing power aggregated on the blockchain which is invisible and "wasted" in Bitcoin today. Introducing relatively easy, although important changes to Bitcoin's design enables us to improve many crucial aspects of Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies making it more secure, efficient, and profitable for participants. We thoroughly analyze our approach and we present an implementation of StrongChain. The obtained results confirm its efficiency, security, and deployability.

Published
2019
Pages
819-836
Proceedings
Proceedings of The 28th USENIX Security Symposium
Conference
28th USENIX Security Symposium (Security '19) Exhibitor and Sponsor Information, Santa Clara, CA
ISBN
978-1-939133-06-9
Place
Santa Clara, US
UT WoS
000509775000047
EID Scopus
2-s2.0-85076366164
BibTeX 
@INPROCEEDINGS{FITPUB12206,
   author = "Ivan Homoliak",
   title = "StrongChain: Transparent and Collaborative Proof-of-Work Consensus",
   pages = "819--836",
   booktitle = "Proceedings of The 28th USENIX Security Symposium",
   year = 2019,
   location = "Santa Clara, US",
   ISBN = "978-1-939133-06-9",
   language = "english",
   url = "https://www.fit.vut.cz/research/publication/12206"
}
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