BCXP: Blockchain-Centric Network Layer for Efficient Transaction and Block Exchange over Named Data Networking
Sedky George, Amr El Mougy · 2018
Blockchains enable mistrusting entities to agree on a common state, and preserve integrity without any need for a trusted 3rd party. However, blockchains suffer from scalability issues, where transaction throughput is affected by multiple factors such as inter-block time, number of peers, and blockchain forks. Accordingly, this paper proposes a novel decentralized peer-to-peer network layer that addresses these issues, and more. In our proposed Blockchain-Centric Exchange Protocol, an information-centric architecture is used to optimize information exchange. We demonstrate the ability of our design to meet many of today's application requirements such as permissioned blockchains, isolation of transaction, validation, and mining traffic, and eliminate the need for an overlay network. Using computer simulations we implement BCXP, compare its performance with other blockchain-centric protocols and IP overlay networks. The results show that even by pushing such IP overlay protocols to impractical limits, BCXP still provides clear performance advantages.