Poisoned Transaction Block Propagation for Faster Blockchain Consensus
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Solution Overview
Problem
In proof-of-work blockchain systems, the delay in block propagation exacerbates issues such as temporary forks and orphan blocks as blocks increase in size, leading to wasted mining efforts and network inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where mining nodes share information about their candidate blocks, including a poisoned ordered set with invalid transactions, to ensure all nodes validate blocks efficiently and maintain consensus security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If miners wait to validate all transactions before propagating blocks, then consensus security is maintained, but block propagation time increases causing temporary forks and orphan blocks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having miners pre-validate transactions and create a validated transaction list before the block propagation phase. This allows the block to be propagated immediately with confidence that transactions are valid, eliminating the waiting period that causes forks and orphan blocks while maintaining consensus security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the block validation process into two distinct phases: a pre-validation phase where transactions are validated and stored in a validated list, and a propagation phase where the block is quickly distributed using this pre-validated information. This segmentation allows each phase to be optimized independently, achieving both speed and security.
2Speed
If miners propagate full block data immediately, then block propagation speed increases, but network bandwidth consumption and node load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential validated transaction information (transaction hashes and validation status) from the full block data and propagates this condensed information first. The full block data can then be propagated separately or upon request, reducing immediate network bandwidth consumption while maintaining propagation speed for the critical validation information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary processing of block data to extract and validate transactions before propagation. This pre-processing creates a compact representation of validated transactions that can be propagated quickly with minimal data volume, while the full block data is prepared separately for subsequent propagation.
3Productivity
If miners rely on other miners' validation work, then processing efficiency increases, but consensus security is undermined
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by having each miner independently validate transactions and create their own validated transaction list, then share this validation result with others. This creates a feedback loop where validation work is distributed and verified across multiple nodes, maintaining security while improving overall efficiency through shared validation results.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies self-service by requiring each miner to perform their own transaction validation and create their validated transaction list rather than relying on others' validation. This maintains consensus security through independent verification while the shared validated lists improve efficiency by eliminating redundant validation work.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and devices for propagating blocks in a blockchain network. At a first mining node, while hashing a first block header of a first candidate block, the first mining node sends, to other mining nodes, a first message specifying transactions and their order in a first ordered set of transactions contained in the first candidate block. To prevent the other nodes from relying on the first mining node having validated the transactions in the candidate block, the first mining node seeds the first ordered set with one or more invalid transactions to create a poisoned ordered set, and provides an encrypted list identifying the invalid transactions. Once a proof-of-work is found for the candidate block, the first mining node provides a decryption key to decrypt the encrypted list and identify the invalid transactions. It may further provide replacement transactions for the invalid transactions.