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Asynchronous Proof-of-Stake

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Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 13046))

Abstract

We introduce a new permissionless blockchain architecture called Cascade (Consensusless, Asynchronous, Scalable, Deterministic and Efficient). The protocol is completely asynchronous, and does rely on neither randomness nor proof-of-work. Transactions exhibit finality within one round trip of communication.

Cascade is consensusless and only satisfies a relaxed form of consensus by introducing a weaker termination property. Without full consensus, the protocol does not support certain applications, such as general smart contracts. However, many important applications do not require general smart contracts, and Cascade is an advantageous solution for these applications. In particular, the architecture can implement the functionality of a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, replacing Bitcoin’s energy-hungry proof-of-work with a proof-of-stake validation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Jakub Sliwinski & Roger Wattenhofer

Authors
  1. Jakub Sliwinski
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  2. Roger Wattenhofer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jakub Sliwinski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

    Colette Johnen

  2. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Elad Michael Schiller

  3. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Stefan Schmid

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Sliwinski, J., Wattenhofer, R. (2021). Asynchronous Proof-of-Stake. In: Johnen, C., Schiller, E.M., Schmid, S. (eds) Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems. SSS 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13046. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91081-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91081-5_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-91080-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-91081-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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