TECH

Bitcoin alternative has almost zero power consumption

Bitcoin Alternative
One of the main criticisms of Bitcoin cryptocurrency and its similars is the astronomical electricity consumption required to ensure security, which creates a carbon footprint disproportionate to its value generation.
That is why Rachid Guerraoui and colleagues at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, Switzerland, are proposing an alternative to current cryptocurrencies that has almost zero energy consumption and is still open source.
If it sounds too good to be true, Guerraoui explains that it comes down to our understanding of what makes transactions secure.
The traditional Bitcoin model, first described in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, is based on solving a problem called "consensus" to ensure transaction security. In this model, everyone in a distributed system must agree on the validity of all transactions to prevent malicious participants from cheating - for example, by spending the same digital currencies twice. To prove their honesty and gain consensus, participants must perform complex, energy-intensive computing tasks that are verified by other network members.

Secure Byzantine Broadcast
In his new model, dubbed "Byzantine Secure Diffusion," Guerraoui reverses the assumption that all participants are potential crooks - in his network all members are "innocent until proven otherwise."
"We take a minimalist approach. We realize that participants do not need to reach consensus; they only need to avoid malicious behavior when they manifest themselves," he explains. "So we assume everyone is honest, and if participants see someone trying to do something wrong, they ignore that participant - and only that participant."
With the consensus requirement out of the way, the Byzantine Secure Broadcasting system can secure secure large-scale cryptocurrency transactions at a virtually zero energy cost - "roughly equivalent to email exchanges," said Guerraoui, and generating only few grams of CO2 compared to the estimated 300 kg for each Bitcoin transaction.

Communication is the key
But how can users be sure that cryptocurrency transactions are secure if they are not sure who the malicious participants are? Guerraoui responds that participants just need to communicate.
"If a malicious participant wants to make a payment, for example, this system will not allow anyone to accept money from that participant until a randomly chosen sample confirms that the participant has not sent money to anyone else, otherwise the payment will not be accepted. , "he explains. "Basically, we're saying that you only need to exchange information with a sample of stakeholders to implement a cryptocurrency."
The central element of communication, or information dissemination, is what gives name to the Byzantine reliable transmission system.
Apart from lower costs and lower energy consumption, the reliable transmission system does not sacrifice anything in terms of transaction security, the researcher says.

Limitations
Although it has a narrower range of applications than Bitcoin and is only suitable for cryptocurrencies, not for more complex transactions such as smart contracts, the system can manage other forms of currency besides money.
"It can be used for an abstract cryptocurrency for the exchange of goods, like bikes in a bike sharing program, for example," suggests Guerraoui.
The team plans to launch their new system by the end of 2020, in open source mode for anyone to download and use.

Source:The Consensus Number of a Cryptocurrency/Scalable Byzantine Reliable Broadcast