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Improving Blockchain Consistency Bound by Assigning Weights to Random Blocks

Author

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  • Xueping Gong

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China)

  • Qing Zhang

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China)

  • Huizhong Li

    (Blockchain Team, WeBank, Shenzhen 518000, China)

  • Jiheng Zhang

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China)

Abstract

Blockchains based on the celebrated Nakamoto consensus protocol have shown promise in several applications, including cryptocurrencies. However, these blockchains have inherent scalability limits caused by the protocol’s consensus properties. In particular, the consistency property demonstrates a tight trade-off between block production speed and the system’s security in terms of resisting adversarial attacks. As such, this paper proposes a novel method called Ironclad, which improves the blockchain consistency bound by assigning a different weight to randomly selected blocks. We apply our method to the original Nakamoto protocol and rigorously prove that such a combination can significantly improve the consistency bound by analyzing the fundamental consensus properties. This kind of improvement enables a much faster block production rate than the original Nakamoto protocol but with the same security guarantee.

Suggested Citation

  • Xueping Gong & Qing Zhang & Huizhong Li & Jiheng Zhang, 2025. "Improving Blockchain Consistency Bound by Assigning Weights to Random Blocks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 73(4), pages 2156-2176, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:73:y:2025:i:4:p:2156-2176
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.2022.0463
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