Scaling blockchain protocols: a research-based approach

This is a new whiteboard session on blockchain scaling, brought to you by Aggelos Kiayias, chair of cybersecurity and privacy at the University of Edinburgh and chief scientist at Input Output.

This session delves into scaling blockchain protocols, which involves enhancing throughput while preserving essential properties such as dynamic participation, self-healing, resilience to faults, incentive alignment, inclusiveness, predictability, and more.

Key topics covered:

- Understanding scaling in blockchain: learn about the metaphor of the blockchain as a pipe, emphasizing the importance of throughput and settlement time.

Essential properties for scaling:
- dynamic participation: engaging with the protocol at any time without prior notice.
- self-healing: recovering from adverse conditions like node failures.
resilience to faults: withstanding deviations in protocol execution.
- incentive alignment: ensuring participants operate in their self-interest.
- inclusiveness: serving a variety of applications globally.
- predictability: knowing transaction times and costs in advance.

- Maximizing throughput: exploring how to utilize the network's capacity effectively, including the challenges of agreement despite deviations.

- Standard approaches and their limitations: analyzing BFT and Nakamoto-style protocols and their impact on throughput.

Potential innovative solutions:
- tiered pricing and blockchain space futures: approaches to managing network capacity.
- layer 2 solutions: payment channels, isomorphic state tunnels, and partner chains to enhance scalability.
- transaction fees: the role of Babble fees and tokenization in managing diverse token holders.

…and much more.

Discover how these strategies and techniques are transforming the way we think about and implement scalable blockchain protocols. Whether you're a blockchain enthusiast, developer, or researcher, this presentation offers valuable insights into the future of decentralized networks.

For additional information on scaling, also checkout the video from Giorgos Panagiotakos, a research fellow at Input Output, who delves into scaling throughput and specifically Ouroboros Leios, a new member of the Ouroboros protocol family that achieves near optimal throughput: 'Near optimal throughput': A deep div...

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