2 Search Results for "de la Rocha, Alfonso"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.6
Hierarchical Consensus: Scalability Through Optimism and Weak Liveness

Authors: Pedro Antonino, Antoine Durand, and A. W. Roscoe

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 356, 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)

Abstract
Scalability is a central concern of Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) distributed protocols. The ubiquitous approach to work around the well-known Dolev-Reischuk Ω(n²) communication complexity lower bound is to use a random selection process to draw a hopefully small committee from a population of agents to run the communication-heavy protocol. We propose a notion of hierarchical consensus that combines two sub-protocols: an optimistic primary sub-protocol that can tolerate less than 1/2 failures and a fallback secondary protocol that can tolerate less than 1/3 failures; we achieve the higher failure threshold by requiring a weaker notion of liveness for the primary. This distinction between the level of fault tolerance between primary and secondary is reflected in the size of committees implementing these protocols. For a population of agents with close to 2/3 of honest agents, we need to select a committee with hundreds of agents to reach the level of tolerance expected for the primary, whereas we need thousands to reach the level expected for the secondary with a very small probability of error ε. Our hierarchical construct is such that if the primary comes to a decision, it can simply propagate it to the secondary protocol, so it does not need to properly engage in an agreement protocol independently. Our architecture is flexible and allows us to use our technique for most protocols that are based on random sampling. By studying hierarchical protocols, we discovered new theoretical results of independent interest. Specifically, the ability to handover from a primary protocol requires a new Justifiability property that allows agents to pre-decide on a value, such that if the protocol decides, it must be on that pre-decided value.
Cite as

Pedro Antonino, Antoine Durand, and A. W. Roscoe. Hierarchical Consensus: Scalability Through Optimism and Weak Liveness. In 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 356, pp. 6:1-6:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{antonino_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2025.6,
  author =	{Antonino, Pedro and Durand, Antoine and Roscoe, A. W.},
  title =	{{Hierarchical Consensus: Scalability Through Optimism and Weak Liveness}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-402-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{356},
  editor =	{Kowalski, Dariusz R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-248232},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hierarchical, Handover, Justifiability, Consensus, Distributed Systems, Blockchain}
}
Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.FAB.2022.3
Hierarchical Consensus: A Horizontal Scaling Framework for Blockchains (Invited Talk)

Authors: Alfonso de la Rocha

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 101, 5th International Symposium on Foundations and Applications of Blockchain 2022 (FAB 2022)

Abstract
In this talk we present the Filecoin Hierarchical Consensus framework, which aims to overcome the throughput challenges of blockchain consensus by horizontally scaling the network. Unlike traditional sharding designs, based on partitioning the state of the network, our solution centers on the concept of subnets –which are organized hierarchically– and can be spawned on-demand to manage new state. Child subnets are firewalled from parent subnets, have their own specific policies, and run a different consensus algorithm, increasing the network capacity and enabling new applications. Moreover, they benefit from the security of parent subnets by periodically checkpointing state. In this paper, we introduce the overall system architecture, our detailed designs for cross-net transaction handling, and the open questions that we are still exploring. Author Bio. Before joining Protocol Labs, Alfonso worked as a blockchain expert at Telefónica R&D, where he was responsible for the design and development of core technology based on blockchains, distributed systems, and advanced cryptography. Alfonso’s involvement in research and development began at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where he worked on topics related to energy efficiency in data centers. His broad R&D experience also includes research into the compression efficiency of video coding standards at Ericsson Research and projects related to securing interdomain routing protocols at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. https://research.protocol.ai/authors/alfonso-delarocha/
Cite as

Alfonso de la Rocha. Hierarchical Consensus: A Horizontal Scaling Framework for Blockchains (Invited Talk). In 5th International Symposium on Foundations and Applications of Blockchain 2022 (FAB 2022). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 101, p. 3:1, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{delarocha:OASIcs.FAB.2022.3,
  author =	{de la Rocha, Alfonso},
  title =	{{Hierarchical Consensus: A Horizontal Scaling Framework for Blockchains}},
  booktitle =	{5th International Symposium on Foundations and Applications of Blockchain 2022 (FAB 2022)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:1},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-248-8},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{101},
  editor =	{Tucci-Piergiovanni, Sara and Crooks, Natacha},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.FAB.2022.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-162709},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.FAB.2022.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: blockchain, consensus, distributed systems, P2P, scalability, sharding}
}
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