Efficient and Secure TSA for the Tangle

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new Tip Selection Algorithm (TSA) for the Tangle in IOTA that enhances security and reduces complexity compared to existing methods, improving transaction validation in DAG-based cryptocurrencies.

Contribution

The paper proposes a novel TSA that is both more secure and computationally efficient than previous algorithms used in the Tangle structure.

Findings

The new TSA improves security against certain attacks.

It reduces computational complexity of tip selection.

Experimental results demonstrate better performance than existing TSAs.

Abstract

The Tangle is the data structure used to store transactions in the IOTA cryptocurrency. In the Tangle, each block has two parents. As a result, the blocks do not form a chain, but a directed acyclic graph. In traditional Blockchain, a new block is appended to the heaviest chain in case of fork. In the Tangle, the parent selection is done by the Tip Selection Algorithm (TSA). In this paper, we make some important observations about the security of existing TSAs. We then propose a new TSA that has low complexity and is more secure than previous TSAs.