A Survey of Distributed Consensus Protocols for Blockchain Networks

摘要: Since the inception of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and underlying blockchain technology have attracted an increasing interest from both academia industry. Among various core components, consensus protocol is defining behind security performance blockchain. From incremental modifications Nakamoto to innovative alternative mechanisms, many protocols been proposed improve network itself or accommodate other specific application needs. In this survey, we present a comprehensive review analysis on state-of-the-art protocols. To facilitate discussion our analysis, first introduce key definitions relevant results in classic theory fault tolerance which help lay foundation for further discussion. We identify five components protocol, namely, block proposal, validation, information propagation, finalization, incentive mechanism. A wide spectrum are then carefully reviewed accompanied by algorithmic abstractions vulnerability analyses. The surveyed analyzed using five-component framework compared with respect different metrics. These analyses comparisons provide us new insights fundamental differences proposals terms their suitable scenarios, assumptions, expected tolerance, scalability, drawbacks trade-offs. believe survey will developers researchers view process designing future