{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109389"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109389","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Barracuda: The power of l-polling in proof of stake blockchains","abstract":"Blockchain is a database of storing sequential events as a chain of blocks consistently across a distributed set of nodes. A fundamental problem in doing so is to decide where to put the next block and who should do it in a Sybil-resistant manner. To solve this problem, typically, a node is elected randomly as a leader to append a new block to the end of a chain stored locally by the leader. Ideally, this should extend the chain of blocks, however in practice, due to network imperfections, the local blockchain of the leader might not be synced entirely, thus resulting in forking, a scenario when a new block is appended in the middle of the blockchain, thus creating a fork. These network imperfections create a structure like a tree rather than a chain, where blocks not part of the main chain are abandoned, thus reducing the system’s efficiency. We propose a new peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol called Barracuda, where the leader polls l − 1 random nodes for their blocktree information before proposing a new block and show that this policy has an effect equivalent to having a network that is l times faster under a stochastic network model inspired by Decker and Wattenhofer (2013). We also show via simulations that Barracuda is robust to several real-world factors in the network model.","abstract_html":"Blockchain is a database of storing sequential events as a chain of blocks consistently across a distributed set of nodes. A fundamental problem in doing so is to decide where to put the next block and who should do it in a Sybil-resistant manner. To solve this problem, typically, a node is elected randomly as a leader to append a new block to the end of a chain stored locally by the leader. Ideally, this should extend the chain of blocks, however in practice, due to network imperfections, the local blockchain of the leader might not be synced entirely, thus resulting in forking, a scenario when a new block is appended in the middle of the blockchain, thus creating a fork. These network imperfections create a structure like a tree rather than a chain, where blocks not part of the main chain are abandoned, thus reducing the system’s efficiency. We propose a new peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol called Barracuda, where the leader polls l − 1 random nodes for their blocktree information before proposing a new block and show that this policy has an effect equivalent to having a network that is l times faster under a stochastic network model inspired by Decker and Wattenhofer (2013). We also show via simulations that Barracuda is robust to several real-world factors in the network model.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Rana, Ranvir"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Electrical & Computer Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Viswanath, Pramod"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-03-05T21:38:06Z","date_published":"2021-03-05T21:38:06Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:50Z","subjects":["Blockchain","Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing","Cryptography and Security","Information Theory"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2020 Ranvir Rana"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109389","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Viswanath, Pramod"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Rana, Ranvir"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021-03-05T21:38:06Z","2020-11-30","2020-12"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Electrical & Computer Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Blockchain","Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing","Cryptography and Security","Information Theory"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2020 Ranvir Rana"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109389"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Blockchain is a database of storing sequential events as a chain of blocks consistently across a distributed set of nodes. A fundamental problem in doing so is to decide where to put the next block and who should do it in a Sybil-resistant manner. To solve this problem, typically, a node is elected randomly as a leader to append a new block to the end of a chain stored locally by the leader. Ideally, this should extend the chain of blocks, however in practice, due to network imperfections, the local blockchain of the leader might not be synced entirely, thus resulting in forking, a scenario when a new block is appended in the middle of the blockchain, thus creating a fork. These network imperfections create a structure like a tree rather than a chain, where blocks not part of the main chain are abandoned, thus reducing the system’s efficiency. We propose a new peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol called Barracuda, where the leader polls l − 1 random nodes for their blocktree information before proposing a new block and show that this policy has an effect equivalent to having a network that is l times faster under a stochastic network model inspired by Decker and Wattenhofer (2013). We also show via simulations that Barracuda is robust to several real-world factors in the network model.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2021-03-04 without embargo terms","The student, Ranvir Rana, accepted the attached license on 2020-11-25 at 13:34.","The student, Ranvir Rana, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2020-11-25 at 13:46.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2020-11-30 at 13:55.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15963 on 2021-03-04 at 15:35:07","Made available in DSpace on 2021-03-05T21:38:06Z (GMT). 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Ideally, this should extend the chain of blocks, however in practice, due to network imperfections, the local blockchain of the leader might not be synced entirely, thus resulting in forking, a scenario when a new block is appended in the middle of the blockchain, thus creating a fork. These network imperfections create a structure like a tree rather than a chain, where blocks not part of the main chain are abandoned, thus reducing the system’s efficiency. We propose a new peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol called Barracuda, where the leader polls l − 1 random nodes for their blocktree information before proposing a new block and show that this policy has an effect equivalent to having a network that is l times faster under a stochastic network model inspired by Decker and Wattenhofer (2013). We also show via simulations that Barracuda is robust to several real-world factors in the network model.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2021-03-04 without embargo terms","The student, Ranvir Rana, accepted the attached license on 2020-11-25 at 13:34.","The student, Ranvir Rana, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2020-11-25 at 13:46.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2020-11-30 at 13:55.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15963 on 2021-03-04 at 15:35:07","Made available in DSpace on 2021-03-05T21:38:06Z (GMT). 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