On the stability of unverified transactions in a DAG-based distributed ledger
File(s)1901.07302v1.pdf (392.89 KB)
Accepted version
OA Location
Author(s)
Ferraro, Pietro
Shorten, Robert
King, Christopher
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Directed Acylic Graphs (DAGs) are emerging as an attractive alternative to traditional blockchain architectures for distributed ledger technology (DLT). In particular DAG ledgers with stochastic attachment mechanisms potentially offer many advantages over blockchain, including scalability and faster trans- action speeds. However, the random nature of the attachment mechanism coupled with the requirement of protection against double-spending transactions might result in an unstable system in which not all transactions get eventually validated. Such transactions are said to be orphaned, and will never be validated. Our principal contribution is to propose a simple modification to the attachment mechanism for the Tangle (the IOTA DAG architecture). This modification ensures that all transactions are validated in finite time, and preserves essential features of the popular Monte-Carlo selection algorithm. In order to demonstrate these results we derive a fluid approximation for the Tangle (in the limit of infinite arrival rate) and prove that this fluid model exhibits the desired behavior. We also present simulations which validate the results for finite arrival rates.
Date Issued
2020-09-01
Date Acceptance
2019-10-19
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2020, 65 (9), pp.3772-3783
ISSN
0018-9286
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
3772
End Page
3783
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control
Volume
65
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Identifier
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8889421
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Automation & Control Systems
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Engineering
Approximation algorithms
Mathematical model
Distributed ledger
Prediction algorithms
Heuristic algorithms
Blockchain
Monte Carlo methods
distributed ledger
internet of things
cs.DC
cs.DC
cs.CR
0102 Applied Mathematics
0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
0913 Mechanical Engineering
Industrial Engineering & Automation
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-10-31