An Accelerated Method for Message Propagation in Blockchain Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces an accelerated message propagation method in blockchain networks by selecting neighbors based on transmission latency, significantly reducing propagation delays and improving blockchain performance.

Contribution

It proposes a latency-based neighbor selection approach for faster message dissemination in blockchain P2P networks, with comprehensive simulation evaluation.

Findings

Reduced average propagation latency

Lower maximum propagation latency

Effective latency-based neighbor selection improves network performance

Abstract

Blockchain is based on a P2P network, supporting decentralized consensus of current cryptocurrencies. Since bitcoin and altcoins all utilize an underlying blockchain, they are therefore greatly affected by the performance of the P2P network. In bitcoin, the miners are engaged in a time-sensitive competition to solve a Proof-of-Work problem to extend the blockchain. This consequently raises a critical problem to minimize the time between the propagation of a winning block and the beginning of the next round of the competition. This paper proposes a method that selects a node's closest neighbors to make messages propagate in the whole network in time. The method measures the distance from a node to its neighbor using transmission latency; thus, the lower the latency, the closer the neighbor. Simulations showed a good rate of decrease in average propagation latency and maximum propagation latency, compared to the classic method. Furthermore, this paper not only proposes the principle of establishing connections based on latency, but also evaluates the influence of the number of simultaneously established connections.