RTChain: a real-time permissioned blockchain leveraging priority-based deterministic concurrency
Guoqiong Liao, Chuanling Zhong, Hao Ding, Changxuan Wan, Dexi Liu, Xiping Liu · Frontiers in Blockchain · 2026
Blockchain meets the needs of data tamper-proofness, anticounterfeiting, and traceability in fields such as the Internet of Things, supply chain management, and industrial control. However, these fields often collect large amounts of data in real-time and require processing within a specified time frame. Existing research mainly focuses on achieving high throughput and low latency in blockchain without considering the timeliness characteristics of transactions, which cannot provide timely guarantees for applications in these fields. Ensuring that transactions from such applications can be processed within the specified time is an urgent issue that blockchain needs to address. In the current study, we design RTChain, a prototype for permissioned blockchains that supports real-time transactions. We design a transaction processing framework that is scheduled first and then executed to process transactions based on timeliness. Specifically, RTChain proposes a priority assignment strategy to transition transaction deadlines and guide transactions throughout their entire lifecycle. We propose a Priority-based Deterministic Concurrency Control (PDCC) algorithm to execute transactions, where conflicts among transactions are resolved by detecting read-write sets and aborting transactions with lower priorities. To enhance the efficiency of transaction execution, we design an address-based check table and introduce an Optimized Priority-based Deterministic Concurrency Control (OPDCC) algorithm. Numerous experiments show that RTChain exhibits stable and excellent performance within various conflict rates and deadline ranges, meeting the timeliness requirements of transactions.