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International Summit Smart City 360°

SmartCity 360 2021: Science and Technologies for Smart Cities pp 504–520Cite as

Characterizing Blockchain Interoperability Systems from an Architecture Perspective

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Abstract

Blockchains are designed as closed execution environments that only support operations within their own system for security purposes. However, as the technology became popular, interoperation across different blockchains emerged as one of the most desired features to enable the creation of networks of interconnected blockchains. Towards fulfilling this need, multiple academic proposals and industry projects have been developed, but most of those systems are designed to connect specific platforms and cannot be applied to all blockchains. While there are studies that aim to provide understanding on these solutions, they are mainly focused on the cryptographic formalization and dependability of such systems. Limited attention has been paid to the system architecture and organization of such solutions. This paper aims to bridge this gap by characterizing existing cross-chain communication systems from an architecture perspective. We classify ten existing systems into four categories and develop an evaluation framework with criteria from five different aspects. We then evaluate the selected systems based on the proposed framework and present a comparative analysis between the systems in each category. We aim to provide an holistic view of state-of-practice to help developers and the blockchain community to select suitable solutions for their cross-chain communication needs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://tendermint.com/core/.

  2. 2.

    https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/learn-crosschain.

  3. 3.

    https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/learn-auction.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Joāo Otávio Chervinski & Jiangshan Yu

  2. CSIRO Data61, Eveleigh, Australia

    Joāo Otávio Chervinski & Xiwei Xu

  3. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Xiwei Xu

Authors
  1. Joāo Otávio Chervinski
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  2. Jiangshan Yu
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  3. Xiwei Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joāo Otávio Chervinski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

    Sara Paiva

  2. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Xuejun Li

  3. Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

    Sérgio Ivan Lopes

  4. SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India

    Nishu Gupta

  5. Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    Danda B. Rawat

  6. Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, UK

    Asma Patel

  7. Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Hamid Reza Karimi 

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© 2022 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Cite this paper

Chervinski, J.O., Yu, J., Xu, X. (2022). Characterizing Blockchain Interoperability Systems from an Architecture Perspective. In: Paiva, S., et al. Science and Technologies for Smart Cities. SmartCity 360 2021. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 442. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06371-8_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06371-8_33

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06370-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06371-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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