TU Darmstadt / ULB / TUprints

The sum of its parts: Analysis of federated byzantine agreement systems

Florian, Martin ; Henningsen, Sebastian ; Ndolo, Charmaine ; Scheuermann, Björn (2025)
The sum of its parts: Analysis of federated byzantine agreement systems.
In: Distributed Computing, 2022, 35 (5)
doi: 10.26083/tuprints-00028660
Article, Secondary publication, Publisher's Version

[img] Text
s00446-022-00430-0.pdf
Copyright Information: CC BY 4.0 International - Creative Commons, Attribution.

Download (751kB)
Item Type: Article
Type of entry: Secondary publication
Title: The sum of its parts: Analysis of federated byzantine agreement systems
Language: English
Date: 14 January 2025
Place of Publication: Darmstadt
Year of primary publication: October 2022
Place of primary publication: Berlin ; Heidelberg ; New York
Publisher: Springer
Journal or Publication Title: Distributed Computing
Volume of the journal: 35
Issue Number: 5
DOI: 10.26083/tuprints-00028660
Corresponding Links:
Origin: Secondary publication DeepGreen
Abstract:

Federated Byzantine Agreement Systems (FBASs) are a fascinating new paradigm in the context of consensus protocols. Originally proposed for powering the Stellar payment network, FBASs can instantiate Byzantine quorum systems without requiring out-of-band agreement on a common set of validators; every node is free to decide for itself with whom it requires agreement. Sybil-resistant and yet energy-efficient consensus protocols can therefore be built upon FBASs, and the "decentrality" possible with the FBAS paradigm might be sufficient to reduce the use of environmentally unsustainable proof-of-work protocols. In this paper, we first demonstrate how the robustness of individual FBASs can be determined, by precisely determining their safety and liveness buffers and therefore enabling a comparison with threshold-based quorum systems. Using simulations and example node configuration strategies, we then empirically investigate the hypothesis that while FBASs can be bootstrapped in a bottom-up fashion from individual preferences, strategic considerations should additionally be applied by node operators in order to arrive at FBASs that are robust and amenable to monitoring. Finally, we investigate the reported "open-membership" property of FBASs. We observe that an often small group of nodes is exclusively relevant for determining liveness buffers and prove that membership in this top tier is conditional on the approval by current top tier nodes if maintaining safety is a core requirement.

Uncontrolled Keywords: Byzantine quorum systems, Asymmetric trust, Byzantine faults, Consensus, Stellar, Blockchain
Status: Publisher's Version
URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-286604
Classification DDC: 000 Generalities, computers, information > 004 Computer science
600 Technology, medicine, applied sciences > 621.3 Electrical engineering, electronics
Divisions: 18 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology > Institute of Computer Engineering > Communication Networks Lab
Date Deposited: 14 Jan 2025 09:52
Last Modified: 14 Jan 2025 09:52
SWORD Depositor: Deep Green
URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/28660
PPN:
Export:
Actions (login required)
View Item View Item