Safe Permissionless Consensus

Youer Pu; Lorenzo Alvisi; Ittay Eyal

doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2022.33

Safe Permissionless Consensus

Youer Pu, Lorenzo Alvisi, Ittay Eyal

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

Nakamoto's consensus protocol works in a permissionless model, where nodes can join and leave without notice. However, it guarantees agreement only probabilistically. Is this weaker guarantee a necessary concession to the severe demands of supporting a permissionless model? This paper shows that, at least in a benign failure model, it is not. It presents Sandglass, the first permissionless consensus algorithm that guarantees deterministic agreement and termination with probability 1 under general omission failures. Like Nakamoto, Sandglass adopts a hybrid synchronous communication model, where, at all times, a majority of nodes (though their number is unknown) are correct and synchronously connected, and allows nodes to join and leave at any time.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2022
Editors	Christian Scheideler
ISBN (Electronic)	9783959772556
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2022.33
State	Published - 1 Oct 2022
Event	36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2022 - Augusta, United States Duration: 25 Oct 2022 → 27 Oct 2022

Publication series

Name	Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
Volume	246

Conference

Conference	36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2022
Country/Territory	United States
City	Augusta
Period	25/10/22 → 27/10/22

Keywords

Consensus
Deterministic Safety
Nakamoto
Permissionless

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Software

Access to Document

10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2022.33

Cite this

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title = "Safe Permissionless Consensus",

abstract = "Nakamoto's consensus protocol works in a permissionless model, where nodes can join and leave without notice. However, it guarantees agreement only probabilistically. Is this weaker guarantee a necessary concession to the severe demands of supporting a permissionless model? This paper shows that, at least in a benign failure model, it is not. It presents Sandglass, the first permissionless consensus algorithm that guarantees deterministic agreement and termination with probability 1 under general omission failures. Like Nakamoto, Sandglass adopts a hybrid synchronous communication model, where, at all times, a majority of nodes (though their number is unknown) are correct and synchronously connected, and allows nodes to join and leave at any time.",

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author = "Youer Pu and Lorenzo Alvisi and Ittay Eyal",

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AU - Alvisi, Lorenzo

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AB - Nakamoto's consensus protocol works in a permissionless model, where nodes can join and leave without notice. However, it guarantees agreement only probabilistically. Is this weaker guarantee a necessary concession to the severe demands of supporting a permissionless model? This paper shows that, at least in a benign failure model, it is not. It presents Sandglass, the first permissionless consensus algorithm that guarantees deterministic agreement and termination with probability 1 under general omission failures. Like Nakamoto, Sandglass adopts a hybrid synchronous communication model, where, at all times, a majority of nodes (though their number is unknown) are correct and synchronously connected, and allows nodes to join and leave at any time.

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KW - Deterministic Safety

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KW - Permissionless

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M3 - منشور من مؤتمر

T3 - Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs

BT - 36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2022

A2 - Scheideler, Christian

T2 - 36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2022

Y2 - 25 October 2022 through 27 October 2022

ER -

Safe Permissionless Consensus

Abstract

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Keywords

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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