(2020-2023) Scalable Blockchains

As a revolutionary technology, blockchain [1] provides a distributed ledger that eliminates trusted third parties, hence removing expensive costs to maintain them and significantly speed up the workflow, and at the same time, brings in transparency and enhanced security (no tampering). Despite its great potential, blockchain technology is still in its infancy stage and facing several grand challenges from security and scalability to cost efficiency. Bitcoin, for instance, can only process a constant number of about 7 transactions per second, while Ethereum is currently at 15 transactions per second, which are several orders slower than VISA or MASTER non-blockchain based services, being capable of processing tens of thousands of transactions per second.

The aim of the project is to significantly improve the efficiency and scalability of blockchain protocols by employing various tools from coding theory, cryptography, and mathematics. In particular, we have the following goals.

• Improving data propagation protocols in blockchain underlying communication networks: faster block propagation leads to higher transaction processing rate without implying any security complication.

• Establishing an optimal trade-off between security and performance: in a typical blockchain network every node performs the same operation (e.g., transaction verification), which guarantees high security but poor performance, while on the other extreme, if only a small group of nodes perform the critical operation then the security can be undermined; our goal is to obtain the best trade-off using techniques from coding theory.

References

[1] S. Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system”, 2008.

[2] A. P. Ozisik et al., “Graphene: efficient interactive set reconciliation applied to blockchain propagation”, SIGCOMM, 2019.

[3] E. Rohrer and F. TschorschKadcast, "A Structured Approach to Broadcast in Blockchain Networks", available online at https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/876.pdf, 2019.

[4] S. Kadhe, J. Chung, and K. Ramchandran, “SeF: A Secure Fountain Architecture for Slashing Storage Costs in Blockchains”, available online at https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.12140, 2019.

[5] Jianyu Niu, Chen Feng, Hoang Dau, Yu-Chih Huang, and Jingge Zhu, "Analysis of Nakamoto Consensus, Revisited", available online at https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.08510, 2019.

Why this project is suitable for a PhD?

Blockchain is a disruptive technology that may significantly improve the way current industries work, by providing a distributed ledger that is transparent, tamper-free, and cost efficient. However, still in its early stage of development, the technology requires rigorous investigation into its various theoretical and practical design and performance. There are plenty of open and intriguing problems in this field of research on data propagation, consensus algorithms, as well as security and privacy related issues. This project will allow the PhD candidate to investigate and address fundamental problems in blockchain research, the outcome of which may significantly advance the progress of this emerging field.

Duration of the project: 3 years (2020-2023)

Contact: please email to me at sonhoang.dau@rmit.edu.au with your CV, Bachelor/Master degree certificates and transcripts.