Communications of the ACM
EPFL Researchers Invent Low-Cost Alternative to Bitcoin
Researchers in the Distributed Computing Lab of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland have developed a system which, they said, represents a lower-cost way to think about cryptocurrencies.
Credit: Shutterstock
Researchers in the Distributed Computing Lab of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have developed a system that represents a new, low-cost way to think about cryptocurrencies.
The traditional Bitcoin model relies on "consensus" to guarantee the security of transactions; everyone in a distributed system must agree on the validity of all transactions to prevent malicious users from cheating.
In contrast, the new Byzantine Reliable Broadcast system takes a minimalist approach to security.
Explained EPFL's Rachid Guerraoui, "We realize that players don’t need to reach consensus; they just need to prevent malicious behavior when it manifests.”
If a malicious player wants to make a payment, the system would not allow anyone to accept money from that player until a randomly chosen sample has confirmed the player has not sent money to anyone else.
The system can achieve safe cryptocurrency transactions on a large scale with an energy cost “roughly equivalent to that of exchanging emails,” Guerraoui said.
From Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
No entries found