A. Hafid, A. S. Hafid, and M. Samih, “Scaling Blockchains: A Comprehensive Survey,” in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 125244-125262, 2020, DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3007251.
What are the existing solutions to blockchain scalability? What are the advantages and disadvantages of those existing scalability solutions?
Summary
This paper studied the existing blockchain scalability solutions. The authors classified these solutions into two categories: First layer solutions (e.g., sharding, bigger blocks, and DAG) and second layer solutions (e.g., payment channels and side chains). In particular, the authors focused on solutions that use the concept of sharding, given that it is one of the most promising solutions to the scalability problem.
The paper presented a taxonomy in which the authors classify sharding based blockchain protocols based on committee formation and intra-committee consensus. Also, the paper analyzed the security of these protocols by computing the failure probability for one committee and for each epoch (i.e., one sharding round).
Method
Survey and comparison
Results
Figure 2 shows a summary of the taxonomy and comparison of blockchain scalability solutions:
Table 6 compares the scalability solutions in terms of throughput, latency, decentralization, and cost, as well as whether they are designed for payment, and vulnerable to double-spending.
The paper gives an overview of blockchain scalability and provides a general taxonomy to classify existing blockchain scalability solutions.
The authors provide a detailed comparison of existing solutions of scalability based on their performances (i.e., throughput, latency), advantages, and disadvantages.
Security analysis of sharding-based blockchain protocols was also discussed in this paper and an investigation of the trade-off between security and performance (throughput) based on the failure probability and years to fail is given.
Applicability
Up to now, no thorough literature review contribution covering the same concerns as this paper. This later provides researchers with a holistic overview and comparison of the existing sharding-based blockchain solutions.
Now that the Ethereum merge is complete, the next step could be reaping the fruits of the merge.
Scalability is one of such fruits. Being that Ethereum is a layer one blockchain, the scaling solutions to look at are—Sharding, Bigger Blocks, and Directed Acyclic Graph— as pointed out in this summary.
Sharding is the most popular amongst the three. Ethereum.org particularly mentions Sharding as a target scaling solution after the merge.
It is also interesting that this summary gives more focus on Sharding as a scaling solution. This summary is very handy now more than ever.
The research began by asking the following questions -
What are the existing solutions to blockchain scalability?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of those existing scalability solutions?
The blockchain trilemma is a widely held belief that decentralized networks can only provide two of the three - decentralization, security and scalability - of a blockchain at any given time.
This paper focuses on one of the blockchain trilemma - scaling blockchains.
First, there is the separation of the scaling solutions into two categories - the first-layer solutions like sharding, bigger blocks and Directed Acyclic Graphs - DAGs. And the second-layer solutions like payment channels and sidechains
A high level definition of sidechains and sharding
Sidechains help pre-existing blockchains to scale and become interoperable.
A sidechain is a separate blockchain network that connects to another blockchain - a parent blockchain or mainnet - via a two way peg.
Sharding is a method of splitting the Ethereum infrastructure into smaller pieces in an attempt to scale the network.
Summary
The summary and take away from this conversation is that for blockchains and web3 to get to massive adoption by people, users of the internet and builders, then blockchains should be able to provide one of the the biggest benefits of the web - which is scaling and processing of transactions at a faster speed.
A blockchain platform’s ability to increase TPS (transactions per second) as user and network traffic grow is referred to as scalability. The scalability strategies will be discussed below. Both off chain and on chain scaling systems can be described. In the software industry, providing clients with high-quality results is essential, and scalability testing is a requirement for the best results and performance before an application is made available in a production setting. There could be a range of issues and results because the testing and production environments aren’t always the same. Businesses are willing to offer competitive salaries to qualified candidates because there is a high demand for scalability testing. The main objective of scalability testing is to determine when an application starts to perform poorly under different workloads so that corrective action can be taken to reduce the risk of financial loss and damaged reputations to the business.
Scalability solutions for the first layer
By extending the maximum block size or speeding up block verification, layer 1 solutions enhance the fundamental characteristics and features of the blockchain network. Sharding, segregated witness (SEGWIT), and hard forking are three options for layer 1 blockchain scalability.
However, the method and tool used for scalability testing differ from industry to industry and application to application. Scalability testing has now become a required step in testing processes at Scalability testing requires a specialized team of experts and testers who have a comprehensive understanding of the system and possess strong analytical skills. infrastructure that can be easily customized to each customer’s needs. Possibility of adjusting the system’s power in accordance with the demands of the moment and the client’s accessibility. Scalability makes sure there is always a minimum service level, even in the case of failure.
Customer accounts on cryptocurrency platforms are not covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in contrast to bank deposits. Customers must rely on the bankruptcy process because the U.S. government won’t intervene to cover consumer deposits as it would in a regular bank failure.
This is my basic understanding of the blockchain scalability solution, and I hope it is useful to your research
@abdeljalil.beniiche
The research the Disadvantages and advantages of the scalability solutions:
Just like the Bitcoin lightning network: a very good advantage of Bitcoin scaling, because it makes Bitcoin transactions more faster and more effective. Having to charge lesser fee for a transaction. Being more readily confirmed than the transaction conducted directly on the bitcoin blockchain. It can also be used to conduct offline transactions and thats where the Disadvantages comes in. Where the Bitcoin lightning network can battle security issues and the untruth in it all.
