# The Evolution and Optimization Strategies of a PBFT Consensus Algorithm for Consortium Blockchains
## 2 Introduction to Blockchain
### The Blockchain Economic Incentive Mechanism  
The fundamental nature of blockchain is to provide decentralized services, and some even argue that it functions as a public good in an economic sense. However, the sustainability of any service relies on both cost maintenance and economic incentives. Given the absence of a centralized authority in blockchain architecture, the system must rely on incentive mechanisms to ensure long-term node participation and network stability.  
Incentive mechanisms serve not only as the foundation of blockchain operations but also as the lifeblood of its decentralized public infrastructure. Their core objective is to align individual economic rationality with the system's overarching goals by integrating cryptographic constraints with game-theoretic design to establish a sustainable value exchange framework. On one hand, incentive mechanisms compensate for computational, storage, and operational costs through block rewards and transaction fees, ensuring the reliability and availability of the infrastructure. On the other hand, they deter malicious behavior through dynamic adjustment measures such as staking mechanisms, yield decay, and penalty enforcement, thereby enhancing the network's resistance to attacks and maintaining its integrity. More importantly, incentive mechanisms foster a self-reinforcing economic loop: initial liquidity is injected through block rewards, market pricing is shaped by transaction fees, and the value capture is achieved via token burning or staking, ultimately leveraging network effects to drive a positive feedback cycle. This intricately designed incentive topology enables trustless collaboration among unacquainted participants in an open environment, effectively resolving the classic \"tragedy of the commons\" problem in distributed systems. As a result, blockchain can achieve secure, trustworthy, and sustainable public governance even in adversarial settings.  
Table 2 presents a comparison of validator rewards across different consensus mechanisms. Consensus mechanisms aim to balance security, efficiency, decentralization, and  
Figure 3: A visualization of measurement data. **(a)** The distribution of blockchain research subject areas. **(b)** A map of blockchain research university contributions. **(c)** A map of blockchain research country contributions. **(d)** The distribution of blockchain literature types. **(e)** A blockchain research high-frequency keyword word cloud.  
economic incentives. PoW ensures high security but consumes substantial energy, while PoS and DPoS enhance efficiency at the cost of decentralization, posing a risk of wealth concentration. PBFT and its variants offer a high throughput but lack strong economic incentives. In contrast, Paxos and Raft, designed for distributed computing, prioritize consistency over economic rewards. Paxos provides a robust fault tolerance but is complex to implement, whereas Raft is simpler in design but less suitable for large-scale blockchain networks. Ultimately, the choice of a consensus mechanism depends on the trade-offs among decentralization, performance, and incentives.