Blockchain Miner Clustering for Lower-Energy Block Computation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Blockchain networks consume significant energy due to all miners attempting to validate and compute blocks for every message, which is unsustainable for battery-driven devices and may lead to regulatory constraints.
Innovation Solution
Miners are assigned to clusters based on node interactions, with participation in block computation determined by cluster membership, reducing the number of involved miners and energy consumption through cluster-specific and global blockchains.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all miners validate and compute blocks for every message, then security and decentralization are maintained, but energy consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the miner population into multiple clusters, where each cluster validates and computes blocks for messages originating from or destined to nodes within its cluster. This segmentation reduces the number of miners involved in each validation process while maintaining overall network security through distributed validation across multiple clusters.
2Adaptability or versatility
If all miners compute blocks for every message, then decentralization is achieved, but computational effort increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the blockchain network into multiple clusters, with each cluster handling validation for specific messages. This maintains decentralization by distributing validation across multiple independent clusters rather than requiring all miners to validate every message, thereby reducing individual computational effort while preserving network-wide decentralization.
Solution Approach 2:
Each miner cluster performs validation locally for messages relevant to its cluster members, rather than all miners validating all messages globally. This local quality approach reduces computational effort by limiting validation to relevant subsets of the network while maintaining decentralization through multiple independent validation clusters.
3Use of energy by moving object
If miners are assigned to specific clusters, then energy consumption is reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-assigning miners to specific clusters based on their capabilities and characteristics before message validation begins. This pre-organization reduces energy consumption during validation by ensuring only relevant miners process each message, while the assignment overhead is incurred only once during cluster formation rather than continuously.
Data Source
AI summary
A technique for controlling participation of a miner in a computation of a block for a message to be added to a blockchain in a blockchain network is disclosed, wherein the miner is assigned to a cluster comprising a set of miners of the blockchain network, and wherein the message is sent from an originating node to a destination node in the blockchain network. A method implementation of the technique is performed by the miner and comprises receiving (S306) the message, checking (S308) whether at least one of the originating node and the destination node of the message is assigned to the cluster to determine whether the miner is to participate in the computation of the block for the message, and starting (S310) to compute the block for the message if it is determined that the miner is to participate in the computation of the block for the message.