Split-Scale: Scaling Bitcoin by Partitioning the UTXO Space

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel Bitcoin scaling method by partitioning the UTXO space and splitting the blockchain, enabling higher transaction throughput while maintaining low-bandwidth validation capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a new protocol that partitions UTXOs and splits the blockchain, enhancing scalability and supporting low-bandwidth nodes.

Findings

Increased transaction throughput through UTXO partitioning.

Maintains validation in low-bandwidth environments.

Demonstrates scalability improvements over standard Bitcoin.

Abstract

The Bitcoin protocol is a significant milestone in the history of money. However, its adoption is currently constrained by the transaction limits of the system. As the chief problem of blockchain technology, the scaling issue has attracted many valuable solutions both on-chain and off-chain. In this paper, our goal is to explore the notion of unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) to propose an augmented Bitcoin protocol that can scale gracefully. Our proposal aims to increase the transaction throughput by partitioning the UTXO space and splitting the blockchain. In addition, a new type of Bitcoin node is introduced to preserve the capability to run validating nodes in low-bandwidth environments, despite the increased transaction throughput.