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2403.03504#199
Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
CoRR , October 2015.
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Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
[21] Yuhang Zhang, Jun Wang, and Jie Luo.
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Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
Heuristic-based address clustering in bitcoin.
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Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
IEEE Access , 8:210582–210591, 2020.
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Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
[22] Zibin Zheng, Shaoan Xie, Hong Ning Dai, Xiangping Chen, and Huaimin Wang.
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Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
Blockchain challenges and opportunities: a survey.
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Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
International Journal of Web and Grid Services , 14(4):352, 2018.
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Graph Visualization for Blockchain Data
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1811.00742#0
Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract Jean-Philippe Martin (self) and Eunjin (EJ) Jung (RationalMind) Abstract Blockchain systems benefit from lessons in prior art such as fault tolerance, distributed systems, peer-to-peer systems, and game theory. In this paper we argue that blockchain algorithms should tolerate both ​ rational ​ (self-interested) users and ​ Byzantine ​ (malicious) ones, rather than assuming all non-Byzantine users are ​ altruistic ​ and follow the protocols blindly.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Such algorithms are called ​ BAR-tolerant ​ [1].
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
To design a BAR-tolerant system, one can follow these three steps: clearly define the utility function for the rational users, prove the algorithm is such that there is no benefit from unilaterally deviating (that is, it's a Byzantine Nash Equilibrium), then prove the algorithm correct assuming the rational actors follow the protocol.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We present an example attack by rational users: the ​ gatekeeping ​ attack, where members of a system selfishly decide to prevent newcomers from joining.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
This attack may affect any stake-based system where the existing members prevent newcomers from making a stake, and essentially form a cartel.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We then sketch a BAR-tolerant consensus protocol for blockchain that can defend against this attack.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
It relies on a strict order to decide who gets to propose a new block (so there's no need to race to solve a crypto puzzle) and it relies on hardware ID tokens to make sure every computer is only represented at most once as a block proposer to mitigate Sybil attacks.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
It also defends against the gatekeeper attack.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The BAR-tolerant approach is naturally also applicable to other blockchain algorithms.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Introduction Blockchain algorithms have captured the world's imagination, and are considered for applications beyond payment services.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
As they grow, we want to make sure we design these algorithms carefully so they can work reliably even at a large scale.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Reliability and scalability are not new challenges in computer science so naturally we draw from prior art including distributed systems, peer-to-peer, and game theory.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The latter especially in the context of incentive compatibility, a key property for Bitcoin or similar systems where software isn't run by a trusted central authority: the participants might write a modified version of the software, one that deviates from the specified algorithm in order to gain some unfair benefit to the user.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
This selfish behavior is happening already: some Bitcoin miners skip the validation of transactions even though this could result in including invalid transactions in the ledger.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Research shows that consensus in Bitcoin will be difficult to achieve when the block reward becomes so small that the transaction fees are the main source of incoming for miners [6].
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
1 BAR tolerance [1] is the property of protocols that work despite both selfish users (called rational ​ ) and some number of malicious users (called ​ Byzantine ​ ).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We argue that BAR-tolerance is a desirable property for blockchain systems.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
In this paper, we discuss an example attack on the system by rational users and show how a BAR-tolerant blockchain protocol might defend against it.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We sketch this protocol to show how one would go about designing a BAR-tolerant algorithm; our protocol is based on the consensus from [1].
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
A ​ gatekeeping ​ attack is an example attack by rational users in blockchain systems that requires a stake (security deposit).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
More precisely, this attack is applicable to any system that requires a user to make a deposit before participating in any protocol that gives rewards proportional to the stake.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Many Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithms, including those used in Ethereum Casper FFG and Tendermint, use deposit-slashing [5] as a solution to the Nothing-at-Stake problem [4], and require a stake from a user before participating in consensus.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
For a new user to become a block producer and earn the block rewards, the new user has to deposit a stake first to a special address, which is a transaction in the chain’s native currency.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
For the existing block producers, the expected block reward they could earn decreases as the newcomer joins.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
If a block producer is chosen with a probability proportional to its own stake over the total stake in the system, then as a new comer joins, the total stake increases and the probability of being elected decreases.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
If the block producers vote on candidates and get the reward proportional to its own stake over the total stake, then as a new comer joins, the total stake increases and the amount of reward for each block decreases.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Thus it is a rational behavior for the existing block producers to not include the deposit transaction in their blocks, which prevents a newcomer from becoming a block producer.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Related Work Blockchain systems experience attacks from Byzantine users.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Bitcoin Gold suffered from double spending attack [9]: The hacker with the majority of the computing power was able to deposit the same Bitcoin Gold to an exchange and also to its own wallet.
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The attacker may have stolen $18.6 million from the exchange.
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Monacoin also experienced a selfish-mining attack that cost an exchange $90K [7].
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Software bug could also cause a Byzantine error in the system: overflow in sum created more bitcoins for block reward than what the protocol dictates and also two addresses received 92.2 billion bitcoins each [3].
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
While it is less evident than Byzantine attacks, the community has been speculating that the rational users are the majority of the system and may deviate from a desirable behavior.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
For example, some bitcoin miners generated invalid blocks [2]: they would rather spend the time to check the validity of transactions on solving the hash puzzle.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Researchers in [6] showed that it may be rational to fork the chain when there are not many transactions left, and the transaction fees form the majority of the reward.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
2 Approach We need to tolerate both malicious and self-interested (rational) actors.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Since some actors may be malicious, we need to use a Byzantine-tolerant algorithm.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
These algorithms can function despite arbitrary behavior from some bounded fraction of the participants (the exact fraction depends on the model.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
It's typically 1/3, but can be up to 100% if sufficiently strong assumptions can be made).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The key requirement is to bound the fraction of malicious actors (otherwise they may be able to evict honest actors, prevent correct transactions from entering the blockchain, etc.).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Instead of using a proof of work (that is, relying on the assumption that the aggregate computing power bought by the honest actors is larger than that of the malicious actors), one can use modern hardware features such as the TPM chip present in most motherboards today.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The manufacturer guarantees actors cannot pretend to own more motherboards than they genuinely do.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
So long as the aggregate buying power of the honest actors is larger than that of malicious actors, the majority vote of the system will be in honest hands - without needing to continually consume vast amounts of power.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
These hardware tokens prevent Sybil attacks.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Remains only to pick who can add the next block to the blockchain: this could be done at random, or simply by taking turns.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Since some actors can be rational (perhaps everyone who is not malicious), we need an incentive-compatible algorithm.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
To tolerate both Byzantine and rational actors we use the BAR approach [1].
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The idea is to design a protocol that is a Byzantine Nash Equilibrium.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
This means that it is in the best interest of each rational actor to follow the protocol as specified.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
In this methodology one first needs to specify what the rational actors will consider ​ costs ​ and ​ benefits when computing their utility function.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
A protocol is a Byzantine Nash Equilibrium if rational actors see no increase in their utility from unilaterally deviating from the protocol.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We assume that they consider the Byzantine actor's worst possible behavior when estimating the utility they would get from following a particular sequence of actions.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
To prove a BAR-tolerant protocol correct, we show 1.
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That the algorithm is a Byzantine Nash Equilibrium, and then 2.
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That the algorithm has the desired properties, under the assumption that the rational actors obey the protocol.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The BAR model allows (but does not require) some of the actors to be altruistic, meaning that they follow the protocol even if it weren't in their personal best interest to do so.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
In this paper we do not require (nor take advantage of) altruistic actors.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The model also assumes that rational actors do not collude.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
This doesn't mean that no collusion happens, it just means that if some actors collude then they count against the limit on Byzantine actors.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
When designing a BAR-tolerant protocol, the author chooses what counts as costs or benefits.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
This is a trade-off: including more things as costs or benefits means it applies to more individuals in real life, but it also makes for a craftier rational actor and the protocol needs to be correspondingly stronger 3 (and its correctness argument gets correspondingly longer).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Including only a few things (for example, perhaps the rational actor is only trying to optimize how many tokens they earn) keeps the algorithm and proof simpler, but some individuals may not fit this model.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
This isn't as bad as it sounds: those actors that act rationally but have different incentives than those the system was designed to resist will still be tolerated, they will just count against the Byzantine tolerance threshold.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We believe that BAR-tolerance or similar approaches are a good fit for blockchain algorithms because the high stakes make the temptation to write a modified client harder to resist (so rational behavior may be seen in practice), and the same stakes also mean that it's important to rely on as few assumptions as possible (so tolerating arbitrary behavior from some actors is beneficial).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Key benefits We sketch a blockchain algorithm that can (a) tolerate malicious actors without requiring a wasteful proof of work, and (b) tolerate rational actors, acting in their individual self-interest.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We hope it serves as an illustration of how one may design a BAR-tolerant algorithm in the context of a blockchain.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Proofs of work in Bitcoin waste large amounts of electricity, creating unnecessary pollution.
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They defend against ​ Sybil attacks ​ , where a single bad actor takes on multiple identities in order to have more voting power and subvert the protocol.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Proof of stake has been proposed as an alternative; our approach is similar but with small stakes, allowing everyone to join and be equally rewarded for participating in the chain.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Hardware features (e.g.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
TPM) can be used to hinder bad actors trying to pretend to be more than one person: they have to buy real hardware for each voter so it's not as easy as just sending another network message.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Another function of Bitcoin's proof of work is to act as a lottery, to pick a leader.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Here instead we use a round-robin approach, taking turn.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
We rely on a BAR-tolerant protocol to ensure that we can reach consensus on which block to add to the chain, without giving rational actors room to deviate for gain.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Components The protocol is built modularly, out of multiple component parts.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Going in approximate chronological order, a user can first read and write transactions in the chain.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Then if they want to produce blocks (and be rewarded for it), they go through a joining and registration step.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Then they follow the consensus subprotocol to wait for their turn and finally produce a block.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Keeping the protocol modular helps keep the design simple and the proofs manageable, though a few of the arguments still need to be over the system as a whole.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
It also makes it easier to 4 evolve the system over time and to add features.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
For example in this paper we are not touching on smart contracts or other high-level concepts, but of course they can also benefit from being Byzantine and rational tolerant.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Joining and Registration Any user of the system can submit transactions to the blockchain without having to register or join, but they need to do both in order to produce blocks.
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Joining is done by submitting a transaction that transfers a small amount of "coin" to a special address for members (this address may be managed by a smart contract, or be hardcoded into the consensus protocol itself).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The user can get this deposit back when they're done producing blocks (this may be done automatically when the user closes the mining program).
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The deposit is forfeit if the user is found deviating from the protocol.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The registration protocol is part of the same interaction, but with the purpose of making it harder for a single malicious person to create multiple accounts in an attempt to manipulate voting or other aspects of the system, i.e.
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mitigating Sybil attack.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Registration can be done by reading a unique hardware ID from the user's machine, so that each user is only allowed a single identity in the system.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
For example one may use the key pair embedded in a TPM, or SGX's linkable quotes to ensure that a given computer cannot register more than once.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Another approach is to ask the user to pay a one-time fee of some sort.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
The fee could be a computation (compute some hashes), human endeavor (mail in a postcard), or paying a token amount.
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Rationality-proof consensus: extended abstract
Something that is small enough that users don't mind doing it once, but that would become a burden if it had to be done thousands of times.
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