Efficient Cross-Chain Interoperability: Decentralized Execution and State Sharding Approach
Libo Feng, Junhong Liu, Zhenli He, Shaowen Yao · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · 2025
Blockchain technology underpins the value internet, yet the isolation of blockchain systems creates "data and value islands," limiting interoperability. To address this challenge, we propose a scalable and secure cross-chain framework that eliminates reliance on relay chains and enhances performance through decentralized execution and state sharding. Each business blockchain operates as an autonomous node, collaboratively maintaining a virtual cross-chain transaction blockchain. Our framework achieves significant improvements: when state operations are executed on-chain, the framework(with a block size of 2) delivers 66% and 149% higher transactions/s compared to TCIP and BitXhub, respectively, with 20% lower latency. Furthermore, off-chain execution(with a block size of 2) boosts maximum transactions/s by 63% and reduces latency by 36%. The introduction of state sharding enhances parallel transaction execution(with a block size of 128 and a number of sharding nodes of 16), achieving an additional 108% performance improvement. This work demonstrates a novel approach to cross-chain interoperability, offering a secure, efficient, and scalable solution for complex blockchain ecosystems.