Latest Developments and Applications of Blockchain Consensus Protocol

In the development process of Blockchain technology, consensus mechanisms have always been a core focus. Recently, significant progress has been made in the research of Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant State Machine Replication (BFT SMR) protocol. This article will delve into the current state of development of Blockchain consensus protocols, with a focus on analyzing the latest breakthroughs in asynchronous BFT protocols.

Current Overview

Currently, the sMVBA protocol is the fastest asynchronous MVBA protocol with an expected latency of 10δ. Although the previous 2-chain VABA protocol claimed to achieve an expected latency of 9.5δ, its actual performance did not meet expectations due to multiple security vulnerabilities.

New Protocol Design

In order to further enhance the performance of the Consensus protocol, researchers proposed two innovative protocol designs:

1. 2PAC (2-phase asynchronous consensus)

The 2PAC protocol significantly improves performance by simplifying and optimizing the Consensus process. The protocol includes two variants:

• 2PAClean: Achieved over 90% throughput improvement, expected latency of 9.5δ, message complexity of O(n²).
• 2PACBIG: The current message complexity is O(n³) for the fastest Blockchain Consensus protocol, with a single MVBA runtime of only 4δ under fault-free conditions.

2. Ultra-Fast Pipeline Block

This new design significantly reduces the latency of pipeline blocks. By introducing a fast path mechanism, under a fair scheduler, the decision time of pipeline blocks may even be shorter than that of non-pipeline blocks. This mechanism guarantees the latency of the fast path in all executions, unaffected by faulty processes.

Performance Assessment

Theoretical analysis and practical test results show:

• The expected latency of 2PAClean in the worst case is 9.5δ, and in the good case, it is 6δ.
• The throughput of 2PAClean is 80%-100% higher than that of chain-based sMVBA.
• The single MVBA runtime of 2PACBIG is 4δ, which is better than all existing protocols.
• The ultra-fast pipeline blockchain design enables s2PAClean and s2PACBIG to achieve pipeline block decision times of 4δ and 3δ, respectively.

Future Research Directions

1. Protocol Optimization: Further simplify the protocol structure, reducing unnecessary message passing and computational overhead.
2. Security Analysis: In-depth study of the new protocol's security under various attack scenarios.
3. Practical Application: Apply the new protocol to actual Blockchain systems to verify its performance in real network environments.

Conclusion

The design of the new generation consensus protocol showcases the development direction of blockchain technology. By simplifying the protocol structure and optimizing the consensus process, these protocols have achieved significant results in improving throughput and reducing latency. With the deepening of research, we have reason to believe that these innovations will lay a more solid foundation for the application of blockchain technology in the digital economy.