BFT in Blockchains: From Protocols to Use Cases

Wang, Xin; Duan, Sisi; Clavin, James R.; Zhang, Haibin

doi:10.1145/3503042

“…A use case is enabling the creation of vaults containing cryptocurrency-backed assets (enabling asset transfers from Bitcoin to Polkadot) [122]. For Byzantine fault tolerant-based consensus (e.g., Elastico, Omniledger, Algorand) [123] or crash-fault tolerant consensus (e.g., Hyperledger Fabric [124]), a light client needs to verify validator signatures and keep track of validator rotation. For private blockchains (e.g., Hyperledger Fabric with privacy settings on), the techniques rely on a trusted quorum that operates the private blockchain, blockchain views, and the usage of a decentralized public bulletin [27], [125], [126].…”

Section: B Light Client Protocolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonia: Securing Cross-Chain Applications Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Belchior,

Dimov,

Karadjov

et al. 2024

Preprint

1

0

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The field of blockchain interoperability plays a pivotal role in blockchain adoption. Despite these advances, a notorious problem persists: the high number and success rate of attacks on blockchain bridges. We propose Harmonia, a framework for building robust, secure, efficient, and decentralized cross-chain applications. A main component of Harmonia is DendrETH, a decentralized and efficient zero-knowledge proof-based light client. DendrETH mitigates security problems by lowering the attack surface by relying on the properties of zero-knowledge proofs. The DendrETH instance of this paper is an improvement of Ethereum’s light client sync protocol that fixes critical security flaws. This light client protocol is implemented as a smart contract, allowing blockchains to read the state of the source blockchain in a trust-minimized way. Harmonia and DendrETH support several cross-chain use cases, such as secure cross-blockchain bridges (asset transfers) and smart contract migrations (data transfers), without a trusted operator. We implemented Harmonia in 9K lines of code. Our implementation is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based chains and some non-EVM chains. Our experimental evaluation shows that Harmonia can generate light client updates with reasonable latency, costs (a dozen to a few thousand US dollars per year), and minimal storage requirements (around 4.5 MB per year). We also carried out experiments to evaluate the security of DendrETH. We provide an open-source implementation and reproducible environment for researchers and practitioners to replicate our results.

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“…A use case is enabling the creation of vaults containing cryptocurrency-backed assets (enabling asset transfers from Bitcoin to Polkadot) [119]. For Byzantine fault tolerant-based consensus (e.g., Elastico, Omniledger, Algorand) [120] or crash-fault tolerant consensus (e.g., Hyperledger Fabric [121]), a light client needs to verify validator signatures and keep track of validator rotation. For private blockchains (e.g., Hyperledger Fabric with privacy settings on), the techniques rely on a trusted quorum that operates the private blockchain, blockchain views, and the usage of a decentralized public bulletin [27], [122], [123].…”

Section: B Light Client Protocolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonia: Securing Cross-Chain Applications Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Belchior,

Dimov,

Karadjov

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The field of blockchain interoperability plays a pivotal role in blockchain adoption. Despite these advances, a notorious problem persists: the high number and success rate of attacks on blockchain bridges. We propose Harmonia, a framework for building robust, secure, efficient, and decentralized cross-chain applications. A main component of Harmonia is DendrETH, a decentralized and efficient zero-knowledge proof-based light client. DendrETH mitigates security problems by lowering the attack surface by relying on the properties of zero-knowledge proofs. The DendrETH instance of this paper is an improvement of Ethereum’s light client sync protocol that fixes critical security flaws. This light client protocol is implemented as a smart contract, allowing blockchains to read the state of the source blockchain in a trust-minimized way. Harmonia and DendrETH support several cross-chain use cases, such as secure cross-blockchain bridges (asset transfers) and smart contract migrations (data transfers), without a trusted operator. We implemented Harmonia in 9K lines of code. Our implementation is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based chains and some non-EVM chains. Our experimental evaluation shows that Harmonia can generate light client updates with reasonable latency, costs (a dozen to a few thousand US dollars per year), and minimal storage requirements (around 4.5 MB per year). We also carried out experiments to evaluate the security of DendrETH. We provide an open-source implementation and reproducible environment for researchers and practitioners to replicate our results.

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“…The function of the TMO is to allocate a sequential number to the message while also verifying its authenticity, after which the verified message can be transmitted through the communication channel. In this consensus protocol, malicious replicas have no control over the channel, they cannot be ambiguous, and thus they cannot act arbitrarily [91]. CheapBFT is a Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) system that utilizes a reliable sub-system, known as CASH, which is based on FPGA technology, to verify messages and achieve high efficiency in resource usage [85].…”

Section: Consensus Algorithms Based On Trusted Hardwarementioning

confidence: 99%

Byzantine Fault-Tolerant Consensus Algorithms: A Survey

Zhong,

Yang,

Liang

et al. 2023

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The emergence of numerous consensus algorithms for distributed systems has resulted from the swift advancement of blockchain and its related technologies. Consensus algorithms play a key role in decentralized distributed systems, because all nodes in the system need to reach a consensus on requests or commands through consensus algorithms. In a distributed system where nodes work together to reach consensus, there may be Byzantine nodes present. The emergence of Byzantine nodes will affect the consensus of nodes in the distributed system. Therefore, tolerating Byzantine nodes in a distributed system and then reaching a consensus is an essential function of a consensus algorithm. So far, many Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) consensus algorithms have emerged, and there are correspondingly many methods to improve the performance of these algorithms. In order to allow researchers to have a clearer understanding of the existing methods, this paper systematically investigated and studied the research progress of the current Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus algorithm. The scope of the research ranged from the classic Byzantine consensus algorithm to some of the latest Byzantine consensus algorithms. The articles were classified according to the methods used to improve the Byzantine consensus algorithm. Through classification and centralized analysis and discussion, we achieved a clearer understanding of the development of Byzantine consensus algorithms and, at the same time, clarified the advantages and disadvantages of this type of method and the latest research progress using this method. At the end of this article, an in-depth discussion and analysis is also presented. By analyzing the impact of the use of these methods on the performance of the BFT consensus algorithm, it is proposed that future research can be improved.

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BFT in Blockchains: From Protocols to Use Cases

Cited by 22 publications

References 152 publications

Harmonia: Securing Cross-Chain Applications Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Harmonia: Securing Cross-Chain Applications Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Harmonia: Securing Cross-Chain Applications Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Byzantine Fault-Tolerant Consensus Algorithms: A Survey

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