A Novel Endorsement Protocol to Secure BFT-Based Consensus in Permissionless Blockchain

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new endorsement protocol with a signature algorithm that enhances security and scalability in permissionless blockchain by preventing Sybil attacks in BFT-based consensus mechanisms.

Contribution

It proposes a novel endorsement-based bootstrapping protocol with a signature scheme to secure BFT consensus in permissionless blockchains against Sybil attacks.

Findings

Effectively prevents Sybil attacks in permissionless blockchain networks.

Demonstrates improved security, robustness, and scalability through simulations.

Provides a scalable identity verification process for BFT consensus.

Abstract

Permissionless blockchain technology offers numerous potential benefits for decentralised applications, such as security, transparency, and openness. BFT-based consensus mechanisms are widely adopted in the permissioned blockchain to meet the high scalability requirements of the network. Sybil attacks are one of the most potential threats when applying BFT-based consensus mechanisms in permissionless blockchain due to the lack of effective verification mechanisms for participants' identities. This paper presents a novel endorsement-based bootstrapping protocol with a signature algorithm that offers a streamlined, scalable identity endorsement and verification process. This approach effectively safeguards the BFT-based consensus mechanism against Sybil attacks. Using our proposed method, we have conducted thorough security analyses and simulation experiments to assess security, robustness, and scalability advantages in large-scale networks. Our results demonstrate that the scheme can effectively address the identity verification challenges when applying BFT-based consensus in a permissionless blockchain.