Pattern matching algorithms in Blockchain for network fees reduction

TL;DR

This paper evaluates and implements pattern matching algorithms on Ethereum's EVM, demonstrating significant reductions in gas fees and execution time, thus optimizing blockchain operations.

Contribution

It introduces an efficient implementation of pattern matching algorithms in Solidity/YUL and provides a comprehensive evaluation of their gas efficiency on Ethereum.

Findings

Up to 22-fold reduction in gas fees compared to StringUtils

Up to 55-fold speed-up in execution time

Effective optimization for various pattern and text parameters

Abstract

Blockchain received a vast amount of attention in recent years and is still growing. The second generation of blockchain, such as Ethereum, allows execution of almost any program in Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), making it a global protocol for distributed applications. The code deployment and each operation performed in EVM cost the network fee called gas, which price varies and can be significant. That is why code optimization and well-chosen algorithms are crucial in programming on the blockchain. This paper evaluates the gas usage of several exact pattern matching algorithms on the Ethereum Virtual Machine. We also propose an efficient implementation of the algorithms in the Solidity/YUL language. We evaluate the gas fees of all the algorithms for different parameters (such as pattern length, alphabet size, and text size). We show a significant gas fee and execution time reduction with up to 22-fold lower gas usage and 55-fold speed-up comparing to StringUtils (a popular Solidity string library).