As information processing modes continue to
innovate and iterate, blockchain has gradually gained wide recognition because
its decentralization and encryption characteristics have withstood the test of
time. Blockchain technology has penetrated deep into every corner of the world
and found increasing application in all sectors of society.
The Internet has evolved from the "Read
Only" Web 1.0 and the "Read and Write" Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 in which individuals
own information. Improved methods of information transmission also mean that
the data is constantly protected by blockchain. The consensus mechanism is a
core part of any blockchain technology and is at the center of blockchain
network performance and security measures. Its settings determine whether a
blockchain system can operate stably and efficiently over long periods of time.
Prevalent consensus protocols include Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake
(PoS), and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). There are also consensus mechanisms
customized to meet the specific needs of different fields. Taking storage
projects as an example, Filecoin's Proof of Replication (PoRep) + Proof of
Spacetime (PoSt) mechanism and the latest Proof of Storage Service (PoSS)
mechanism put forward by Datamall Coin (DMC) both have their advantages. Now,
we will discuss various consensus mechanisms as below.
PoW is widely known because it has been
adopted by Bitcoin. It is the consensus mechanism whose security performance
has been verified for the longest period of time. PoW has the advantage of high
degree of decentralization, but it requires a lot of computational power.
Moreover, its efficiency is too low. That is why Ethereum has gone for the more
efficient PoS. This mode distributes the corresponding interest according to
the quantity and duration (i.e. coin age) of the coins held by users. However,
the excessive centralization of coin possession widens the wealth gap between
coin holders, which dampens the enthusiasm of retail investors.
EOS addresses above problem with DPoS, the
principle of which is to elect n representatives through ballot by coin holders
and turn these representatives into n super nodes with equal rights. Although
the streamlined workflow increases efficiency, it nevertheless suffers the
prominent disadvantage of centralization. It can be seen that no consensus
mechanism is perfect, and there is unlimited room for improvement.
Now, let's turn our attention to two
representative consensus mechanisms existing in storage projects. When we
compare the differences between Filecoin and DMC, we actually explore what
kinds of consensus mechanism they have found according to their specific needs.
Filecoin differs from other projects in
that there are two kinds of proof: PoRep and PoSt, in the system. RoRep is an
evolutionary version of Proof of Storage, which can prove that data has been
stored by miners and ensure the independence of each data storage. After RoRep
verification is completed, the PoRep algorithm will be repeated m times for
computation, and the results obtained each time will be the input for a new
round of PoRep computation. The final answer will be used as the result of
PoSt. The Porep algorithm is used to resist three common attacks in
decentralized systems: Sybil Attack, Outsourcing attacks and Generation
attacks.
Filecoin stands as a special case since it
concurrently adopts two mechanisms. Most projects only use one mechanism at a
time. The latest Datamall Coin (DMC) storage project adopts a unique
decentralized storage service network application consensus algorithm called
Proof of Storage Service (PoSS), which takes the quantity of the staked Proof
of Service Tokens (PSTs) cast by DMC as the voting right, screens miner nodes
as the consensus nodes based on the voting right, and then provides storage
service, namely mining.
Specifically, the PoSS consensus algorithm
uses the quantity of the staked DMC-cast PSTs to proportionally generate the
corresponding number of voting rights, and ranks the nodes accordingly to
continuously select a certain number of miners who actively provide storage
services as the consensus nodes and give them incentives according to the
reward rules. PoSS provides a powerful safeguard mechanism to prevent Node
hijacked attack and Collusion attack. The fair incentives under the consensus
mechanism will eventually attract more miners who can provide storage services
to join, thus injecting a continuous driving force for decentralized network
storage service capabilities.
The PoSS consensus idea is geared to adapt
to the storage development of future blockchain. However, only time and market
tell which of the numerous consensus mechanisms at present will withstand the
vigorous security performance test and stand out to become the next standard
storage mechanism in the future.
References:
[1] KAUR, MANPREET. "MBCP: Performance
Analysis of Large Scale Mainstream Blockchain Consensus Protocols." IEEE
Xplore, IEEE ACCESS Volume 9, 2021, 10 June 2021