Decentralized Trust through Network Exploration: A Probabilistic Approach to Trustless Transaction Verification for Resource-Constrained Blockchain Clients

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Abstract
Decentralized trust is a fundamental requirement for blockchain networks where peers lack mutual trust, yet the majority are assumed to be honest for correct network operation. Traditional mechanisms to address this rely on analyzing the blockchain data structure, a process that is resource-intensive for constrained devices. This paper explores Aurora, a novel solution which adds another layer of trust to blockchain networks: It leverages network exploration to achieve trustless and decentralized transaction verification for resource-constrained blockchain clients. Aurora employs a probabilistic algorithm based on hypergeometric distribution to identify sets of peers likely to contain an honest majority. By exploring the network structure, Aurora constructs a set of network peers containing a majority of honest, i.e. trusted, peers with strong correctness guarantees, without relying on a central authority. The probabilistic approach is highly-efficient compared to the deterministic alternative, as demonstrated by analytical analysis and extensive simulations on a realistic Bitcoin-like network. Aurora allows IoT devices to act as ultra-light clients interacting efficiently with the constructed set of peers: An Aurora client checks whether a transaction exists in a valid ledger block by collecting a majority vote from the set without downloading the entire ledger or header chain. Unlike many existing light client algorithms, Aurora seamlessly integrates with existing consensus protocols and offers a novel mechanism for decentralized trust in blockchain networks.
Funding Information
  • European Regional Development Fund (KK.01.1.1.04.0108)
  • Hrvatska Zaklada za Znanost (IP-2019-04-1986)

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