A MILP Model for a Byzantine Fault Tolerant Blockchain Consensus

Vitor Nazário Coelho, Rodolfo Pereira Araújo, Haroldo Gambini Santos, Wang Yong Qiang and Igor Machado Coelho
Additional contact information
Vitor Nazário Coelho: OptBlocks, Avenida Jo ao Pinheiro, 274 Sala 201-Lourdes, Belo Horizonte-MG 30130-186, Brazil
Rodolfo Pereira Araújo: Graduate Program in Computational Sciences (PPG-CComp), Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua S ao Francisco Xavier, 524-Maracan a, Rio de Janeiro-RJ 20550-013, Brazil
Haroldo Gambini Santos: Department of Computer Science, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Campus Morro do Cruzeiro, Ouro Preto-MG 35400-000, Brazil
Wang Yong Qiang: Research & Development Department, Neo Global Development, 80, Zhengxue Rd, Shanghai 200082, China
Igor Machado Coelho: Institute of Computing, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Gal. Milton Tavares de Souza, São Domingos, Niterói-RJ 24210-310, Brazil

Future Internet, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: Mixed-integer mathematical programming has been widely used to model and solve challenging optimization problems. One interesting feature of this technique is the ability to prove the optimality of the achieved solution, for many practical scenarios where a linear programming model can be devised. This paper explores its use to model very strong Byzantine adversaries , in the context of distributed consensus systems. In particular, we apply the proposed technique to find challenging adversarial conditions on a state-of-the-art blockchain consensus: the Neo dBFT. Neo Blockchain has been using the dBFT algorithm since its foundation, but, due to the complexity of the algorithm, it is challenging to devise definitive algebraic proofs that guarantee safety/liveness of the system (and adjust for every change proposed by the community). Core developers have to manually devise and explore possible adversarial attacks scenarios as an exhaustive task. The proposed multi-objective model is intended to assist the search of possible faulty scenario, which includes three objective functions that can be combined as a maximization problem for testing one-block finality or a minimization problem for ensuring liveness. Automated graphics help developers to visually observe attack conditions and to quickly find a solution. This paper proposes an exact adversarial model that explores current limits for practical blockchain consensus applications such as dBFT, with ideas that can also be extended to other decentralized ledger technologies.

Keywords: byzantine fault tolerance; consensus; distributed ledger technology; exact adversarial model; integer programming; Neo Blockchain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/12/11/185/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/12/11/185/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jftint:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:185-:d:436505

Access Statistics for this article

Future Internet is currently edited by Ms. Grace You

More articles in Future Internet from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().