Network Pos Blockchain
Network Pos Blockchain
Abstract—The comparative analysis examined eleven Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus-based blockchain networks to assess their
openness based on five indicative metrics. These metrics include those of decentralization-related aspects, such as the number of
arXiv:2305.13259v1 [cs.CR] 22 May 2023
validators and capital concentration, and participation-related aspects, including entry capital requirements and economic network
stability. This is to assess and characterize the openness of Proof-of-Stake blockchain networks. The analysis suggested that networks
with higher openness included Solana and Avalanche, while BNB Chain, Klaytn, and Polygon measured with lower levels of openness.
According to the comparative analysis, Ethereum scored high on network openness in terms of the number of participants and the cost
of running the chain, but scored relatively low on capital concentration and staking ratio, which is likely due to the low ratio of staked ether
(ETH) to circulating supply and the significant stakes in staking pools like Lido. Permissioned blockchains such as Klaytn and Polygon
have limited openness, which suggests the need to take the level of openness into account when transitioning into a permissionless
blockchain architecture with a more decentralized setting.
Index Terms—Proof-of-Stake, Blockchain Network Openness, Blockchain Network Accessibility, Blockchain Consensus, Network
Participation
1 I NTRODUCTION
economically accessible, and this can help broaden a decentralization index to measure the level of decentral-
the base of users participating in running validators. ization of public blockchains.
3) Capital concentration: A blockchain with an even Several studies have investigated various aspects of
distribution of staked capital can maintain high Proof of Stake networks. [11], [12], [13], [14], and [15]
security through a consensus with a large number have focused on wealth distribution in different blockchain
of validators. Proof-of-Stake blockchains often de- networks and linked it to potential security threats due to
termine consensus in proportion to staked capital. asset centralization. Proof of Stake and its variants have
If too many stakes are clustered in particular val- been described and analyzed in [1] and [2]. Many studies
idators, a block can be created with the consensus have investigated various attack scenarios against Proof of
of only a few validators, which is not appropriate Stake networks: [16] argues that a 51% attack on Proof
for an open network. Therefore, we could conclude of Stake is unlikely, and [17] investigates double-spend
that the more evenly staked capital is distributed, attacks on Proof of Stake chains and measures their prob-
the more open the blockchain is. ability. [18] identifies attack vectors against the consensus
4) Operating costs: The lower the cost of running val- algorithm of Proof-of-Stake and compares several Proof-of-
idators, the more users can be encouraged to partic- Stake blockchain networks in terms of their resistance to
ipate as validators on an ongoing basis. these attacks. [19] determines the economic value required
5) Network stability from an economic perspective: The to launch a 51% attack on a blockchain, and [20] provides
economic stability of a blockchain network plays insights into the Sybil attack and the double-spend attack.
an important role in protecting the network from In the realm of permissionless blockchains, [4] sug-
external attackers. There are two factors to consider gests that permissionless blockchains have more poten-
for network stability; tial than permissioned blockchains. [5] elaborates on
6) Staking ratio: The higher the percentage of staked the differences between permissioned and permissionless
assets in circulation, the more stable the network. A blockchains while [21] elaborates on the performance and
higher staking ratio can make it harder for attackers cost evaluation of public blockchains with a case study
to acquire the native tokens they need to disrupt a on NFT marketplace applications. Regarding the openness
network. of blockchain networks, [19] argues that the Nakamoto
7) Cost of attack: The cost for an attacker to compro- coefficient can be utilized as a metric to measure the de-
mise a network is an important factor for network centralization of blockchain networks.
stability. The higher the cost of an attack, the more
economically disadvantageous it is to attack the
network, which may decrease the chance for the
attacker to make such an attempt. 3 M EASURING O PENNESS L EVELS
This paper is a cross-platform comparative analysis and 3.1 The Number of Validators
systemization of knowledge in decentralization, participa-
tion and economic aspects of existing permissionless and First, let’s look at the number of validators: the more valida-
permissioned blockchains in the blockchain industry, it cov- tors a network has, the more open it is, as the opinions of
ers the analysis of nine permissionless blockchain networks more participants can be taken into account. In general, we
[4] [5] and two permissioned blockchain networks that may expect that an open blockchain network would have a
plan to gradually transform to become permissionless and higher number of validators than a permissioned blockchain
measure and analyze the levels of openness respectively. network because it is structured to be open to anyone.
This comparative study will first look at the related work
in measuring the levels of openness and its participation-
related aspects. It will then cover the mechanism and opera-
tion of measuring the openness level of different blockchains
and its summary concluding from the comparative analysis
with the suggested future work for improvement in levels
of openness and participation of different blockchain proto-
cols.
2 R ELATED W ORK
Several studies have been conducted to evaluate and com-
pare different blockchain platforms. [6] investigates how to
measure the decentralization of blockchain networks, while
[7] compares different blockchain platforms in the context of
their ecosystems. In a similar vein, [8] performs an analysis
of different blockchain platforms with a focus on comparing
consensus protocols. Furthermore, [9] argues that public
blockchain networks are becoming increasingly centralized.
Finally, [10] provides a comprehensive summary of research TABLE 1: Number of validators by blockchain network as of
work in blockchain decentralization, highlighting the use of March 2023
3
As high-performance blockchain networks [19] are opti- 3.5 Network Stability from an Economic Perspective
mized for high throughput and performance, their operat-
It is generally believed that Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains
ing costs are relatively high. They require more CPU cores
require a higher cost for a double-spend attack than Proof-
and memory as well as having a relatively high number
of-Work (PoW) blockchains due to the higher cost of staking.
of transactions per block, increasing the block size hence
To commit a double-spend attack on a PoS blockchain, an
requiring more storage space; as such, the total operating
attacker is expected to acquire over the majority of the
costs could go up. Fig. 3 indicates that networks categorized
staked native tokens, which is largely costly. In addition,
as a high performance blockchain such as Aptos, Klaytn,
a blockchain with a high staking ratio can be considered a
and Solana have relatively high operating costs. This indi-
relatively secure network, as it becomes more difficult for
cates that high-performance blockchains could be relatively
an attacker to obtain the native tokens needed to launch an
weaker in terms of openness. In addition, high-performance
attack.
blockchains in general have short block times and process The value of a network can be considered proportional
many transactions per block, which means that a lot of data to the circulating amount of its native tokens [23]. This is be-
needs to be transferred and synchronized among validators cause the higher the circulation, the more active the network
in a short amount of time. Thus, the network transmission is considered to be. But if a permissionless blockchain has a
costs are also likely to be relatively higher. low staking ratio to the circulating supply, an attacker could
If so, we can estimate how much upfront capital is potentially attack the network [18] by purchasing a large
needed to cover operating costs with the rewards for run- number of tokens in circulation [16] [19]. For instance, on
ning a validator. If these costs are low and the rewards a Proof-of-Stake blockchain that achieves consensus propor-
are sufficient, this could be an incentive to participate as tional to the stake, a double-spend attack [20] becomes pos-
a validator [22]. Of course, this estimate is based on the sible if an attacker acquires 2/3 of the total staked amount
reward level and a native token price at the moment, which needed for consensus [17]. On the other hand, a blockchain
can change at any time. network that uses consensus proportional to the number
The estimated initial investment costs and annual re- of validators may require less than 2/3 of the total staked
ward rate for operating each network validator is summa- amount because consensus can be made when reaching 2/3
rized in Table 5. In this table, a single consensus node is con- of the number of validators sorted by ascending staking
sidered a validator, and the costs of proxy nodes required amount. Therefore, an attacker may be able to launch an
for node operations are excluded. Some networks such as attack at a relatively low cost.
Klaytn require a proxy node to be installed to participate in To compare network resistance to attacks, we calculated
running a validator, but since this table calculates the cost of the required staking ratio to the tradable quantity for con-
operating with a single node, it may differ from the actual sensus by each network as described in [Table 6]. As the
operating costs, and the annual reward levels may also vary. definition of tradable quantity slightly differs by network,
Cosmos Hub and Klaytn, for instance, offer over 10% we have defined it as the quantity that can be secured
APR while other chains offer lower rewards. In terms of through normal transactions, which is total supply or cir-
upfront investment, hundreds of thousands of dollars of culating supply in here. And the quantity already minted
capital should be staked on most chains to expect profits but designated as a reserve or burnt is excluded from the
over the costs of running validators. tradable quantity.
In the case of Ethereum, the amount that can be staked Table 6 shows each network’s total circulating supply and
per validator is fixed (32 ETH), profits exceeding the op- the minimum staking amount for consensus divided by the
6
4 R ESULTS OF C OMPARATIVE A NALYSIS ON N ET- relatively low. Given the fact that both Klaytn and Poly-
WORK O PENNESS L EVELS gon blockchains have been permissioned blockchains, their
openness scores do not mean much, but if they transition
The actual cost of a network attack can vary depending on
into a permissionless blockchain, they could likely be less
a variety of factors, including market conditions and price
open. The radar chart [24] depicted in Fig. 5 visualizes
fluctuations, so the analysis results should be considered a
the openness levels of six blockchain networks out of the
rough indicator.
eleven blockchain networks bench-marked in this study. It
is suggested that the relatively highly-open Ethereum and
Solana taking up a larger area, while BNB Chain and Klaytn
occupy a relatively small area. This chart helps compare and
assess the openness levels of the networks at a glance.
5 C ONCLUSIONS
In this comparative analysis, we compared the openness
levels of different Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain networks
and summarized with the following insightful results.
1) Proof-of-stake networks could be categorized by 2
evaluation methods: proportional to staking and
proportional to the number of validators.
TABLE 8: A relative level of openness among blockchain 2) Networks with proportional staking have a rela-
networks (minimum 1, maximum 5) tively large number of validators and are relatively
highly-stable with high potential for capital concen-
The scores of the relative openness levels among the tration.
eleven blockchain networks analyzed is summarized in 3) Networks with consensus proportional to the num-
Table 8, in which each score closer to 5 indicates a higher ber of validators are relatively highly-open in terms
level of openness while a score closer to 1 indicates a lower of capital concentration but could be vulnerable to
level of openness. network attacks if there are large variations in the
Solana and Avalanche networks were assessed to be amount staked.
highly open, with relatively high scores in the number of 4) Some blockchain networks are with high initial capi-
validators, initial capital cost, and capital concentration. tal requirements, making it difficult to participate as
These factors were combined to contribute to increasing a validator without support from the corresponding
their openness. foundation of the blockchain networks.
As Algorand does not disclose the exact number of 5) High-performance blockchains require high hard-
validators, the exact result is not available, but it is assumed ware specifications, resulting in relatively high op-
to be highly open based on a combination of data sources. erating costs.
While Ethereum scored high in several metrics, it scored low 6) Algorand, Avalanche, Celo, and Solana demonstrate
in the areas of capital concentration and network stability, a higher level of network openness.
which means that there are some limitations to the openness 7) Cosmos Hub, Ethereum, and NEAR Protocol are
of the Ethereum network. moderately open.
8) Ethereum scored very high on many metrics, in-
cluding the number of validators, initial capital,
and operating costs, but scored lower on capital
concentration and staking ratio.
9) The openness of permissionless networks that re-
quire an extremely large initial capital is found
to be not significantly different from permissioned
blockchain networks.
The results summarized in this comparative analysis can
help understand how openness and stability of blockchain
networks affect each other and could match with which
strategy to adopt in order to improve the openness of a
permissionless network. Also, so as to transition a permis-
sioned blockchain network into an effectively permission-
less blockchain, the following could be taken into account.
1) Choose a suitable consensus method for a network
Fig. 5: Openness Level Radar Chart between a mechanism of proportional to stake and
that of proportional to the number of validators
Aptos and BNB Chain scored lower in initial capital 2) Properly set the number of validators, initial capital
cost and decentralization, and their total scores were also cost, and operating costs
8
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