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Highly Available Blockchain Nodes With N-Version Design
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Computer Science, Theoretical Computer Science, TCS.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6988-3102
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Computer Science, Software and Computer systems, SCS.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0541-6411
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Computer Science, Theoretical Computer Science, TCS.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7211-3894
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Computer Science, Software and Computer systems, SCS.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4015-4640
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2024 (English)In: IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, ISSN 1545-5971, E-ISSN 1941-0018, Vol. 21, no 4, p. 4084-4097Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

As all software, blockchain nodes are exposed to faults in their underlying execution stack. Unstable execution environments can disrupt the availability of blockchain nodes' interfaces, resulting in downtime for users. This paper introduces the concept of N-Version Blockchain nodes. This new type of node relies on simultaneous execution of different implementations of the same blockchain protocol, in the line of Avizienis' N-Version programming vision. We design and implement an N-Version blockchain node prototype in the context of Ethereum, called N-ETH. We show that N-ETH is able to mitigate the effects of unstable execution environments and significantly enhance availability under environment faults. To simulate unstable execution environments, we perform fault injection at the system-call level. Our results show that existing Ethereum node implementations behave asymmetrically under identical instability scenarios. N-ETH leverages this asymmetric behavior available in the diverse implementations of Ethereum nodes to provide increased availability, even under our most aggressive fault-injection strategies. We are the first to validate the relevance of N-Version design in the domain of blockchain infrastructure. From an industrial perspective, our results are of utmost importance for businesses operating blockchain nodes, including Google, ConsenSys, and many other major blockchain companies.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2024. Vol. 21, no 4, p. 4084-4097
Keywords [en]
availability, blockchain, Blockchains, Computer architecture, N-Version design, Peer-to-peer computing, Programming, Prototypes, Software, Time factors
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-349884DOI: 10.1109/TDSC.2023.3346195ISI: 001270317500010Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85181578677OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-349884DiVA, id: diva2:1881983
Funder
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, ChainsWallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP)
Note

QC 20240704

Available from: 2024-07-04 Created: 2024-07-04 Last updated: 2025-03-27Bibliographically approved

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Ron Arteaga, JavierSoto Valero, CésarZhang, LongBaudry, BenoitMonperrus, Martin

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