Exploring Blockchain Technology through a Modular Lens: A Survey

Minghui Xu; Yihao Guo; Chunchi Liu; Qin Hu; Dongxiao Yu; Zehui Xiong; Dusit Niyato; Xiuzhen Cheng

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: blockchain modular analytic framework consensus distributed ledger scaling 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: 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},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1180}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1180}
}