VeChain and University of Oxford Jointly Propose An Evaluation Framework for Blockchain Consensus Protocols
August 11, 2020 — In an effort to support the blockchain industry as a whole, VeChain and the Mathematical Institute at University of Oxford have been working together as close partners to carry out research and provide independent scientific advice.
Considering the pivotal role of consensus protocols in blockchain systems, University of Oxford and the VeResearch team jointly published a technical paper titled; AlphaBlock: An Evaluation Framework for Blockchain Consensus Protocols for the evaluation of blockchain consensus protocols. The overall performance of Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus and Nakamoto Consensus (NC) is compared through the AlphaBlock framework.
An Industrial-level Framework For Blockchain Consensus Evaluation
There are countless blockchain consensus designs in the industry today. While the security of a certain design can be analyzed theoretically, there is no established way to objectively evaluate the real performance of a particular consensus design. This causes a significant problem in the adoption efforts for the blockchain industry.
This joint research work is aimed to provide a framework for the evaluation of blockchain consensus performance. The proposed framework will be a powerful tool for both the blockchain industry and academic world to quantify the performance of a particular consensus algorithm under different algorithmic settings and network conditions.
With VeChain and Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford’s AlphaBlock, blockchain practitioners would be able to try and test their consensus designs without actually implementing it.
In AlphaBlock, the topological graph model is used to represent blockchain nodes and communications among them. Based on the model, the researchers are able to quantify the communication cost and delay of each new block. After that, they evaluate the throughput by analyzing how efficient the bandwidth is used and the latency according to the message delay, the block interval, and the number of rounds before the confirmation of a block. These two quantities are used as the main factors to evaluate the performance of a consensus design.
The Pursuit Of Business-friendly, Scalable And Secure Consensus
As for real-world businesses, the blockchain consensus needs to be scalable, secure and business-friendly. For instance, business users should be given real-time quantifiable security levels of their transactions included in the blockchain ledger to allow them to make right decisions in their business activities. The consensus should also offer unconditional security guarantee on transactions at some point. In addition, it is desirable for the consensus to push for a further performance improvement such as faster transaction confirmation times and better stability of block production.
Positioned as the enabler to drive technology implementation that would bring tangible business value for enterprises, VeChain has been dedicated in enhancing the underlying consensus of VeChainThor Blockchain for long-term development and the robustness of the ecosystem. The collaborative research efforts with University of Oxford is just one example of our leadership in the industry.
In February 2020, Dr. Peter Zhou, the Chief Scientist at VeChain, and Dr. Zhijie Ren, the Senior Researcher on Blockchain at VeChain, introduced PoA 2.0-SURFACE consensus algorithm for blockchain networks to satisfy the demanding security needs of enterprise users. PoA 2.0 is characterized as a secure, use-case adaptive, and relatively fork-free approach of chain extension.
The VeResearch initiative currently involves 8 of the top universities around the world participating in this program, tackling research topics which will shape the future of our global economy through the usage of blockchain technology. We are always actively seeking for new academic partners to further develop the blockchain technology of the future.
Together with the University of Oxford, VeChain will extend the scope of Alphablock and further collaborate on other topics like DeFi and blockchain economic models. It is, and will always be, our goal to empower everyone as VeChain continues to grow.
About VeChain
As a leading enterprise friendly public blockchain platform, VeChain began in 2015 and aims to connect blockchain technology to the real world by providing enterprises with blockchain solutions suitable for their business needs and to build a trust-free and distributed business ecosystem platform for business value. With VeChain ToolChain™, a one-stop data BaaS platform, VeChain will continue to promote the large-scale application of blockchain technology, help enterprise clients in digitalization transformation, and eventually realize the long-term vision of enabling the real economy.
VeChain is the pioneer of real-world business applications, with international operations in Singapore, Luxembourg, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, America, Italy and San Francisco. With strong independent development capabilities, and the professional compliance guidance of our strategic partners, PwC (one of the world’s top four accounting firms) and DNV GL (a leading global assessment and certification society), VeChain has established partnerships with many leading enterprises in various industries, including Walmart China, Bayer China, BMW, BYD Auto, PICC, H&M, ENN, Shanghai Gas, LVMH, D.I.G, ASI etc.
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