The elimination of miners and block producers by using smart contracts
(The first and the most important step to smart and eco-friendly blockchain)
Perhaps today it is the widespread belief that miners, block producers, and their activities are inseparable from blockchain technology and an integral part of it, but we hope we can conquer this belief because this is not true and it is possible to produce valid blocks by using other methods rather than the existing one and we had better consider other possibilities especially the potential of smart contracts.
The authors of the article are Ms. Somayyeh Gholami and Mr. Mehran Kazeminia and it is written in Persian and English versions in December 2018.
At the moment, miners or block producers have a key role in the blockchains. By using one of the proof algorithms in blockchain, they competitively and collaboratively prove the correctness of the data of incoming block and then add the block to the end of the chain. Certainly, at present, miners and block producers deserve to receive rewards and fees. But, by using a smart contract, it is possible to produce every second, an encrypted block containing transactions’ data and be assured about its validity and accuracy there’ll be no place for miners and block producers in future’s blockchains and we have to say goodbye to them, as well as to a variety of proof mechanisms.
If you are wondering how the smart contract in a distributed network can access data of every single transaction, you’d better read till the end. In fact, there is no wonder at all, because our smart contract is the main factor for all transactions and without involving it, there will be no transaction between the two. In this method, there is no flaw in the accuracy of information, for example, there is no risk of double spending, and there is no need for a variety of proof mechanisms. For this reason, it could add easily the encrypted data of transaction in a form of a new block to the main chain in a split second.
What are the features of the block producer smart contract (BPSC) and how does it work?
It was almost a year ago that we realized miners and block producers could possibly replace by smart contracts. That’s why we’ve examined it more and more and we’ve got good results. Today, we are sure to say that the blockchains of the future will not require miners and block producers. One or multiple main smart contracts can accomplish block producer’s tasks much cheaper, faster, and more accurately and all earliest and main features of blockchain are preserved. They can even make further concessions for new blockchains that have never been possible. For example they can even separate important financial transactions from the rest of them. So, instead of producing a block in split a second, they can produce simultaneously two individual blocks; odd and even block which are immediately added to the main chain. In this way, odd blocks will be allocated for important financial transactions, and even blocks will be allocated to the rest of the transactions. In the following, the smart contract, where it is a blocks generator in the upcoming blockchains, is called blocks producer smart contract (BPSC).
The BPSC smart contract can operate in a decentralized network in several ways. Just to convey the concept and outline its function, Let’s give a simplified example so that the advantages of this method are almost tangible. In this way, we imagine our new blockchain and the BPSC Smart Contract on Ethereum network that is an active network:
1- First , by using simple smart contract we create one million special types of ERC20 tokens at once, in the name of AKA token (Pseudonym), and for now, we will keep all of them in the wallet of smart contract (AKA wallet). The new blockchain, which we will launch, is only for recording the transactions of these million AKA tokens.
2- We consider ten wallets for AKA token customers.
3- The important features of AKA tokens and eleven wallets (AKA wallet plus ten customer wallets) are that only AKA tokens can send out of these eleven wallets to a specific address. Also, only AKA tokens can be received from the same specific address. This unique address is an address of the wallet of BPSC smart contract, which will generate blocks for our network.
4- The Main feature of the BPSC is to receive AKA tokens only from these eleven wallets and can only send AKA tokens to these eleven wallets.
5- We give BPSC several instructions, including sending immediately the same AKA tokens which received from each of the eleven wallets to a wallet that is the final destination. The final destination or final receiver must always be ticketed by the sender. For some reasons, If BPSC cannot send AKA tokens to the final destination, it should immediately return the AKA tokens to the sender. Meanwhile, the BPSC is required instantly to record a successful transaction list (getting tokens from the sender and send tokens to the receiver) and also encrypt and preserve it for making the new block.
6- We can configure BPSC to record transactions with over a thousand AKA tokens in odd blocks and less than a thousand in even block. In this case, both blocks odd and even (for example, blocks number 115 and 116) are recorded consecutively at the same time; anyway, we have been able to separate the important transactions in this way. In addition to the ticket of final address, we can also define a second ticket for the sender to notify to BPSC what’s its other demand.
7- Now if AKA wallet sent 100,000 AKA tokens to their customers via BPSC, the first transactions are stored in the BPSC, and from now on, customers can start exchanging AKA tokens through the BPSC between themselves, and every moment BPSC Will record every single successful transaction.
8- The data collected by BPSC is the main data from the AKA token transactions and there is no flaw in it. And BPSC, as an administrator and agent who all customers confident in it, can encrypt the data with the highest coding standards, and always with the registration new blocks in the main chain, will keep our blockchain alive on a decentralized network.
9- It is even possible that several BPSCs work together in a decentralized network, and each one can be responsible for a specific blockchain and a specific transaction. For example, a BPSC that has the task of recording one type of cryptocurrency transactions into a blockchain, and another BPSC can be responsible for registering other cryptocurrency transactions in another blockchain, and … In this case, the different cryptocurrencies in different independent blockchain can be put together on a decentralized network. Until today, we only have seen multiple tokens in a network, they do not have an independent blockchain, and they are not considered as a cryptocurrency.
10- This example illustrates the BPSC’s performance on a decentralized network, Ethereum. In fact, the Ethereum network receives Gas as a cost for each transaction and makes its own blockchain. Now, in addition to the fact that BPSCs make their own blockchain, the Ethereum main network is also active and records and stores all transactions in its own blockchain. It means AKA token transactions data is stored in two blockchain. Of course, when we were sure of the BPSC’s performance, if the block producer don’t do their job or if they’re asked to end their works on Ethereum’s main network, then the BPSC’s blockchain will no longer be flawed by this circumstances, and forever, AKA token transactions will be recorded and stored safely with no charges and problems.
The above example was used to illustrate the concept of the new blockchain or, in short, the smart blockchain on an active decentralized network. So they can also join the new generation of blockchain! But perhaps the main purpose is to set up a smart blockchain on an entirely new network that has the ability that one or more BPSCs are responsible to produce blocks in the network forever. Certainly, launching a completely new smart blockchain, according to the above example, is possible. Even the creation of new networks practically is easier than to make changes to the available active blockchains.
More details about the performance of “BPSC” Block Producer Smart Contract
The main feature of the BPSC is that all transactions are carried out through BPSC, and there is no valid transaction on the network without the BPSC involving. For example, the sender of cryptocurrency can only and only send its cryptocurrency to the wallet of BPSC and then BPSC sends these tokens to the final destination. Meanwhile, the other output of the BPSC is new blocks that include all transaction information which is continuously added by the BPSC itself to the end of the blockchain. There may be a few points here:
One — Is there any risk of double spending in this way? It does not perform like a conventional peer to peer network. Meanwhile, it does not require any other financial or intermediary entity. We will give BPSC the tasks of an intermediary financial institution without paying the costs. That’s why there’s no risk of double spending in this method. Algorithms such as “POW Proof Of Work”, “ DPOS Delegated Proof of Stake”, and …. would not have any performance or function, because the block produced by BPSC is completely valid and requires no consensus and proof.
Two — Is there a way to differentiate transactions based on their subject? Yes, even if it is done by increasing the number of BPSCs which is the best approach to reduce the traffic of each BPSC! In addition to separating transactions in different blockchains, it also helps speed of the network. The limitation and important point is that transactions can be assigned to separate BPSCs which their subject are not related. For example, if in a smart contract requires a pay per one hundred Likes, then all transactions on the project must be registered and stored by the same BPSC and into the same blockchain. Meanwhile, even in these cases, we can allocate odd blocks, to cryptocurrencies’ transactions for example and even blocks, to transactions of the number of Likes.
Three — Can BPSC codes be imported into the codes of every smart contract? Yes, in this case, from the very beginning of launching a smart contract, for example, on the Ethereum network or EOS network and parallel to the main network, we will also have a free dedicated blockchain for our project. Meanwhile, creating libraries of codes and standards for BPSC seems to be necessary. These are might the first steps to broaden this approach and smooth using of BPSCs on older and newer blockchain.
Four — What is the future of the smart contract block producer (BPSC)? If the blockchain and decentralized network are supposed to build and launch according to the mentioned approach, BPSC is likely to be involved in registering and storing all transactions since the producing of first block, while after each transaction, it can simply update its internal version of “the balance of wallets of network “, and continue to perform its duties as an impervious and trustee financial institution. In this case, just like any other smart contract, there is concern about the speed of network and security in the BPSCs, but with the difference that BPSCs always have a heavy traffic and their security is essential. For the current active blockchains, the BPSC must receive the last state of all wallets. Of course, as already mentioned, BPSCs can always serve into the exclusive blockchain, in parallel with the main blockchain.
Meanwhile, we’ve come up with the idea for more than a year, and during this time, we’ve investigated and developed the subject, which is not mentioned in detail in the article. These efforts focused on the issue of getting the correct and flawless information from transactions at the time of transaction, and in this case there is no need at all to generate multiple alternatives from a block in order to choose validated block by using of different mechanism such as consensus mechanism and … which has high energy consumption and costs, and even create a fork. There may be several ways to do this, but the most tangible one is the utilization of the concept of BPSC, like the above example, the smart contract was itself a sender and receiver of the token, but perhaps in a more sophisticated plan, the smart contract receive the encrypted data of the transactions as a ticket from the original sender and receiver, at the time of the transaction.
Look from a different perspective
While developers propose smart contracts for the most complex projects and social interaction, such as types of voting, referendum, insurance types, and financial interaction in order to some extent eliminate human factors, costs, mistakes and reduce corruption, why for recording the transactions of these smart contracts, human factors in the form of the miner and the block producers should have a crucial role and consume a lot of energy and cost.
Maybe, today it is the widespread belief that miners, block producers, and their activities are an integral part of blockchain technology, but we hope we can conquer this belief because this is not true and it is possible to produce valid blocks by using other methods rather than the existing one and we had better consider other possibilities especially the potential of smart contracts. Changing the wrong belief is definitely hard, but it’s the first step and probably the most important step in implementing this idea.
Here’s the end of the article and we’re eager to receive your feedback.
December 12, 2018
Somayyeh Gholami
Mehran Kazeminia
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +398,714 people.
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