Protecting the network from unlimited growth of blockchain size
Blockchain networks are threatened by various types of attacks. The relevant protection should be presumed on the internal and external levels from the very beginning of the system formation. Last time describing the risks that could potentially disrupt the operation of #MetaHash, we stopped at an attack by changing the local network time, which is better known as timejacking. Today we will talk about the threat of unlimited blockchain growth.
One of the main problems of blockchain is its scalability. It is difficult for systems to develop and provide a growing number of transactions while maintaining high speed. As the chain of operations and their confirmation becomes longer, as the number of users and actions performed by them increase, each node has more and more load. The ‘heavier’ the chain of blocks is, the more time network synchronization takes from users.
Unlimited growth of blockchain size
Risk type: Operational
Probability: High. With the course of time, the blockchain size may lead to the impossibility to store the blockchain on regular hardware equipment. Given the industry growth rate, in several years Ethereum size may exceed 10TB resulting in utter impossibility to store it on personal computers.
Risk of consequences: High.
Risk Control: One of #MetaHash features is the storage of archived data in a distributed repository with no negative side-effects on main network performance at the expense of State blocks. According to #MetaHash calculations, with continuous peak load on the network, the storage of archived data will be financially efficient at least for 10 years. For this scenario, it is proposed to implement a cheap archive repository or deploy a purging mechanism of the 10+-year-old data. This decision should be taken by voting. Should #MetaHash ever face any challenges related to storage of the historical data, it will be possible to perform a fork approved through general voting and to create a new Genesis block in order to reduce the costs related to historical data storage.
Next time we will talk about methods of protecting the network from other threats, such as the 51% attack, which allows a hacker to gain control over transaction confirmation and block generation.
You can always get more information from our White Paper and Yellow Paper, as well as ask the administrators of our Telegram channel.
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