A Consensus-Based Load-Balancing Algorithm for Sharded Blockchains

TL;DR

This paper introduces a distributed, dynamic load-balancing algorithm for sharded blockchains that adapts transaction allocation based on recent workload history to improve scalability and efficiency.

Contribution

It presents a novel consensus-based, fully distributed workload-balancing algorithm specifically designed for sharded blockchains, addressing the challenge of uneven workload distribution.

Findings

Preliminary simulation results show effective workload distribution.

Algorithm adapts to workload variations in real-time.

Potential for improved scalability in sharded blockchains.

Abstract

Public blockchains are decentralized networks where each participating node executes the same decision-making process. This form of decentralization does not scale well because the same data are stored on each network node, and because all nodes must validate each transaction prior to their confirmation. One solution approach decomposes the nodes of a blockchain network into subsets called "shards", each shard processing and storing disjoint sets of transactions in parallel. To fully benefit from the parallelism of sharded blockchains, the processing load of shards must be evenly distributed. However, the problem of computing balanced workloads is theoretically hard and further complicated in practice as transaction processing times are unknown prior to be assigned to shards. In this paper we introduce a dynamic workload-balancing algorithm where the allocation strategy of transactions to shards is periodically adapted based on the recent workload history of shards. Our algorithm is an adaptation to sharded blockchains of a consensus-based load-balancing algorithm. It is a fully distributed algorithm inline with network based applications such as blockchains. Some preliminary results are reported based on simulations that shard transactions of three well-known blockchain platforms.