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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2-hop Blockchain: Combining Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake Securely

Authors : Tuyet Duong, Lei Fan, Jonathan Katz, Phuc Thai, Hong-Sheng Zhou

Published in: Computer Security – ESORICS 2020

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Bitcoin-like blockchains use a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism, where security holds if the majority of the computing power is under the control of honest players. However, this assumption has been seriously challenged recently, and Bitcoin-like systems fail if this assumption is violated. In this work we propose a novel 2-hop blockchain protocol that combines PoW and proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanisms. Our analysis shows that the protocol is secure as long as the honest players control a majority of the collective resources (which consist of both computing power and stake). In particular, even if the adversary controls more than 50% of the computing power, security still holds if the honest parties hold sufficiently high stake in the system. As an added contribution, our protocol also remains secure against adaptive adversaries.

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previous chapter On Private Information Retrieval Supporting Range Queries

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This also implies that our design could be used as a strategy for converting a PoW-based blockchain into a pure PoS one, via a sequence of hard forks.

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Title: 2-hop Blockchain: Combining Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake Securely
Authors: Tuyet Duong
Lei Fan
Jonathan Katz
Phuc Thai
Hong-Sheng Zhou
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Computer Security – ESORICS 2020
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59012-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-59013-0

Copyright Year: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59013-0_34

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