Title
Optimizing Merkle Proof Size for Blockchain Transactions
Abstract
Merkle trees play a crucial role in blockchain networks in organizing network state. They allow proving a particular value of an entry in the state to a node that maintains only the root of the Merkle trees, a hash-based signature computed over the data in a hierarchical manner. Verification of particular state entries is crucial in reaching a consensus on the execution of a block where state information is required in the processing of its transactions. For instance, a payment transaction should be based on the balance of the involved accounts. The proof length affects the network communication and is typically logarithmic in the state size. In this paper, we take advantage of typical transaction characteristics for better organizing Merkle trees to improve blockchain network performance. We focus on the common transaction processing where Merkle proofs are jointly provided for multiple accounts. We provide lower bounds for the communication cost and describe algorithms based on traffic patterns can significantly reduce them. We rely on real blockchain data to show the savings allowed by our approach.
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.1109/COMSNETS51098.2021.9352820
2021 International Conference on COMmunication Systems & NETworkS (COMSNETS)
Keywords
DocType
ISSN
hash-based signature,state information,payment transaction,network communication,blockchain network performance,common transaction processing,Merkle proof size optimisation,blockchain transaction networks,Merkle tree organization
Conference
2155-2487
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-7281-9128-7
1
0.36
References 
Authors
0
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Avi Mizrahi121.05
Noam Koren210.36
Ori Rottenstreich397.31