Blockchain Ordering Service Fault Detection via Random Audit
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Solution Overview
Problem
Blockchain transactions with lower transaction fees often become stagnant due to a lack of interest from miners, leading to delayed processing as they wait for more rewarding tasks, and there is a need to detect and address Byzantine faults such as lying, equivocation, and denial of service faults in blockchain ordering services.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method that includes initiating a timer to audit blockchain transactions, randomly selecting a committer node, requesting and verifying the hash of a blockchain block, and using a signed promise mechanism to ensure transaction inclusion based on queue length, thereby detecting and preventing Byzantine faults.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If miners are rewarded based on transaction fees alone, then low-fee transactions become stagnant and processing delays occur, but increasing rewards for all transactions increases operational costs
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the reward parameter from fee-based to time-based by introducing a timer that expires after a predefined period. This timer expiration triggers an audit procedure that randomly selects a committer node, incentivizing miners to process transactions within the time window regardless of fee amount, thereby reducing transaction waiting time while controlling operational costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback through the timer expiration mechanism that triggers audit procedures. When the timer expires, the system provides feedback by randomly selecting a committer node and verifying the blockchain block hash, creating a closed-loop incentive system that accelerates transaction processing without proportionally increasing rewards for all transactions.
2Reliability
If the blockchain system operates without active auditing, then Byzantine faults may go undetected compromising integrity, but implementing continuous auditing increases system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic auditing through timer expiration events rather than continuous monitoring. The timer expires after a predefined period, triggering a random selection of a committer node for audit. This periodic approach maintains blockchain integrity by detecting Byzantine faults while avoiding the complexity of continuous auditing mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses self-service auditing where the blockchain network itself performs the audit through random selection of committer nodes. The selected node is asked to provide a hash of a blockchain block, which is then compared to a known value. This self-auditing mechanism maintains reliability without requiring external audit infrastructure, reducing system complexity.
3Productivity
If miners selectively process high-fee transactions, then processing efficiency for valuable transactions improves, but overall transaction throughput decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by setting up timer expiration events before transactions become stagnant. The timer is initiated to begin timing an audit procedure, and when it expires, a committer node is randomly selected to process the transaction. This preliminary timing mechanism ensures that transactions are processed within a defined window, maintaining both efficiency for valuable transactions and overall throughput by preventing selective stagnation.
Data Source
AI summary
An example operation may include one or more of initiating a timer to begin timing an audit procedure, when the timer expires after a predefined period of time, randomly selecting a committer node member of a blockchain, transmitting a request for a hash of a blockchain block, comparing the hash of the blockchain block, received from the randomly selected committer node, to a known value of the hash of the blockchain block, and determining whether the hash of the blockchain block received matches the known value of the hash of the blockchain block.