Academic Research
In our research we have found the same concurrency problems in the context of high-performance computing and blockchain networks.
| Concurrency Problem | High-Performance Concurrent Programming Solution | Ethereum Blockchain Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Data organization | Concurrent data structures (hashmap, vector, skiplist) | Blockchain, comprising blocks of transactions |
| Consensus problem | Atomic variables combined with semantics defined by memory model (relaxed, sequentially consistent) | Proof-of-stake, active validators stake 32 ETH and are pseudo-randomly selected as block proposer for a slot |
| Race conditions | Mutexes, semaphores, compare-and-swap | A single beacon block is proposed per slot, and the beacon block is executed sequentially |
| Correctness | Correctness conditions (linearizability, sequential consistency) | Beacon block re-executed by validators assigned to attest to the beacon block |
| Unresponsive threads | Lock-free, wait-free progress algorithmic guarantee | Requirement of 2/3 attestation for proposed block, penalty when validator misses attestation |
| Malicious threads | Concurrency bug finding tools | Requirement of 32 staked ETH, slashing |
| Resource allocation | I/O, CPU resources, cache lines, database | Communication overhead, gas fees, blockspace |
Zachary Painter and Damian Dechev, Lock-Free Concurrent Smart Contracts, In Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC 2024), Dublin, Ireland, May 27-31, 2024.
Victor Cook, Christina Peterson, Zachary Painter, Damian Dechev, Quantifiability: a concurrent correctness condition modeled in vector space, Computing 105: 955–978, 2023. Funding: NSF grants OAC 1740095 and CCF 1717515. Read Paper
Victor Cook, Christina Peterson, Zachary Painter, and Damian Dechev, Design and Implementation of Highly Scalable Quantifiable Data Structures, In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Parallel Computing Technologies (PaCT 2021), Kaliningrad, Russia, September 13-18, 2021. Read Paper
Zachary Painter, Victor Cook, Christina Peterson, and Damian Dechev, Descriptor Based Consensus for Blockchain Transactions, In Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Conference On Distributed And Event-Based Systems (DEBS 2021), Online, June 28 – July 2, 2021. Read Paper