Paper 2021/1276
On the Security and Performance of Blockchain Sharding
Runchao Han, Jiangshan Yu, Haoyu Lin, Shiping Chen, and Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo
Abstract
In this paper, we perform a comprehensive evaluation on blockchain sharding protocols. We deconstruct the blockchain sharding protocol into four foundational layers with orthogonal functionalities, securing some properties. We evaluate each layer of seven state-of-the-art blockchain sharding protocols, and identify a considerable number of new attacks, questionable design trade-offs and some open challenges. The layered evaluation allows us to unveil security and performance problems arising from a fundamental design choice, namely the coherence of system settings across layers. In particular, most sharded blockchains use different trust and synchrony assumptions across layers, without corresponding architectural guarantees. Unless a hybrid architecture were used, assuming differentiated system settings across layers can introduce subtle but severe failure syndromes or reduce the system’s performance.
Metadata
- Available format(s)
-
PDF
- Category
- Cryptographic protocols
- Publication info
- Preprint. MINOR revision.
- Keywords
- blockchainsharding
- Contact author(s)
-
runchao han @ monash edu
jiangshan yu @ monash edu
chris haoyul @ gmail com
shiping chen @ data61 csiro au
paulo verissimo @ kaust edu sa - History
- 2021-09-24: received
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2021/1276
- License
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CC BY
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2021/1276,
author = {Runchao Han and Jiangshan Yu and Haoyu Lin and Shiping Chen and Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo},
title = {On the Security and Performance of Blockchain Sharding},
howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2021/1276},
year = {2021},
note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1276}},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1276}
}
