Empirically comparing the performance of blockchain’s consensus algorithms

Ashar Ahmad; Abdulrahman Alabduljabbar; Muhammad Saad; Daehun Nyang; Joongheon Kim; David Mohaisen

doi:10.1049/blc2.12007

Empirically comparing the performance of blockchain’s consensus algorithms

Ashar Ahmad
, Abdulrahman Alabduljabbar
, Muhammad Saad
, Daehun Nyang
, Joongheon Kim
, David Mohaisen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Blockchain-based audit systems suffer from low scalability and high message complex-ity. The root cause of these shortcomings is the use of “Practical Byzantine Fault Toler-ance” (PBFT) consensus protocol in those systems. Alternatives to PBFT have not been used in blockchain-based audit systems due to the limited knowledge about their func-tional and operational requirements. Currently, no blockchain testbed supports the execution and benchmarking of different consensus protocols in a unified testing environment. This paper demonstrates building a blockchain testbed that supports the execution of five state-of-the-art consensus protocols in a blockchain system; namely PBFT, Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS), Proof-of-Elapsed Time (PoET), and Clique. Performance evaluation of those consensus algorithms is carried out using data from a real-world audit system. These results show that the Clique protocol is best suited for blockchain-based audit systems, based on scalability features.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	56-64
Number of pages	9
Journal	IET Blockchain
Volume	1
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1049/blc2.12007
State	Published - Mar 2021
Externally published	Yes

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10.1049/blc2.12007

Cite this

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abstract = "Blockchain-based audit systems suffer from low scalability and high message complex-ity. The root cause of these shortcomings is the use of “Practical Byzantine Fault Toler-ance” (PBFT) consensus protocol in those systems. Alternatives to PBFT have not been used in blockchain-based audit systems due to the limited knowledge about their func-tional and operational requirements. Currently, no blockchain testbed supports the execution and benchmarking of different consensus protocols in a unified testing environment. This paper demonstrates building a blockchain testbed that supports the execution of five state-of-the-art consensus protocols in a blockchain system; namely PBFT, Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS), Proof-of-Elapsed Time (PoET), and Clique. Performance evaluation of those consensus algorithms is carried out using data from a real-world audit system. These results show that the Clique protocol is best suited for blockchain-based audit systems, based on scalability features.",

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AU - Ahmad, Ashar

AU - Alabduljabbar, Abdulrahman

AU - Saad, Muhammad

AU - Nyang, Daehun

AU - Kim, Joongheon

AU - Mohaisen, David

PY - 2021/3

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AB - Blockchain-based audit systems suffer from low scalability and high message complex-ity. The root cause of these shortcomings is the use of “Practical Byzantine Fault Toler-ance” (PBFT) consensus protocol in those systems. Alternatives to PBFT have not been used in blockchain-based audit systems due to the limited knowledge about their func-tional and operational requirements. Currently, no blockchain testbed supports the execution and benchmarking of different consensus protocols in a unified testing environment. This paper demonstrates building a blockchain testbed that supports the execution of five state-of-the-art consensus protocols in a blockchain system; namely PBFT, Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS), Proof-of-Elapsed Time (PoET), and Clique. Performance evaluation of those consensus algorithms is carried out using data from a real-world audit system. These results show that the Clique protocol is best suited for blockchain-based audit systems, based on scalability features.

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Empirically comparing the performance of blockchain’s consensus algorithms

Abstract

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