Paper 2023/1180

Exploring Blockchain Technology through a Modular Lens: A Survey

Minghui Xu, Shandong University
Yihao Guo, Shandong University
Chunchi Liu, Ernst & Young
Qin Hu, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
Dongxiao Yu, Shandong University
Zehui Xiong, Singapore University of Technology and Design
Dusit Niyato, Nanyang Technological University
Xiuzhen Cheng, Shandong University
Abstract

Blockchain has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its potential to revolutionize various industries by providing trustlessness. To comprehensively examine blockchain systems, this article presents both a macro-level overview on the most popular blockchain systems, and a micro-level analysis on a general blockchain framework and its crucial components. The macro-level exploration provides a big picture on the endeavors made by blockchain professionals over the years to enhance the blockchain performance while the micro-level investigation details the blockchain building blocks for deep technology comprehension. More specifically, this article introduces a general modular blockchain analytic framework that decomposes a blockchain system into interacting modules and then examines the major modules to cover the essential blockchain components of network, consensus, and distributed ledger at the micro-level. The framework as well as the modular analysis jointly build a foundation for designing scalable, flexible, and application-adaptive blockchains that can meet diverse requirements. Additionally, this article explores popular technologies that can be integrated with blockchain to expand functionality and highlights major challenges. Such a study provides critical insights to overcome the obstacles in designing novel blockchain systems and facilitates the further development of blockchain as a digital infrastructure to service new applications.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Publication info
Preprint.
Keywords
blockchainmodular analytic frameworkconsensusdistributed ledgerscaling techniques
Contact author(s)
mhxu @ sdu edu cn
yhguo @ mail sdu edu cn
History
2023-08-02: approved
2023-08-02: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2023/1180
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2023/1180,
      author = {Minghui Xu and Yihao Guo and Chunchi Liu and Qin Hu and Dongxiao Yu and Zehui Xiong and Dusit Niyato and Xiuzhen Cheng},
      title = {Exploring Blockchain Technology through a Modular Lens: A Survey},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2023/1180},
      year = {2023},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1180}
}
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