In the past few years of the development of the cryptocurrency network, there have been many projects featuring expansion, but not many can be used as signature solutions, such as the homogeneous sharding of Ethereum 2.0 and the heterogeneous sharding built by Polkadot. , the side chain of Plasma, the layer2 of zkSync, Optimistic, StarkWare, etc., the cross-chain structure of COSMOS (using cross-chain expansion).These projects are constantly looking for the most suitable expansion method based on the blockchain structure of Ethereum and Bitcoin. The attention of Ethereum 2.0 is the highest. It focuses on PoW switching to PoS, and then compresses transaction data (rollup) and shapes the sharding structure (sharding, non-data sharding). This method is extremely long and is the ultimate idea of a cryptocurrency network. , but it cannot be denied that this is an extremely necessary long-term road.In essence, the blockchain structure has obvious advantages, and the ceiling is also extremely obvious. If you want to innovate, if you don’t break the ceiling brought by the blockchain structure, it seems difficult for the industry to go to the next step. The author believes that innovation in the industry needs to learn ideas from many mature industries and mature technology systems.The bottleneck of the blockchain is too obvious
The bottleneck of the blockchain comes from its greatest advantage: consensus.The consensus operation process is a process in which multiple parties (node devices) calculate the same data (block). For example, in Bitcoin, a node packs a block and broadcasts it to all nodes for storage one by one.
Example diagram of blockchain single node limit
In this way, in each blockchain structure, the model in the above figure will appear. All computing tasks are preempting the computing resources of a computing node, and several tasks are preempting a narrow channel.If the amount of concurrency is not so high in some application scenarios, the entire confirmation process can be smoothed out by improving the computing power of a single node, replacing a faster consensus algorithm, and doing a pass time allocation for the task of scrambling for resources.However, it is a pity that for many high-concurrency scenarios (blockchain cannot stop at financial and single scenarios), it will definitely be blocked, slow, or even completely impossible, or cause other problems (such as security) due to congestion.To solve this problem, it is necessary to achieve a sufficient amount of parallel processing during task processing in order to increase the upper limit of task processing per unit time of the network.If we learn from the expansion and parallel ideas of cloud computing, how can the encrypted currency network be realized?The idea provided by cloud computing, the most basic requirement, is to access the network resources of the system, not the access of multiple computing devices. The upper limit of resources exported to the outside world is only the upper limit of one computing device. The processing power is N times improved.This is exactly what the encrypted currency network needs. Each encrypted currency network has access to several computing devices, and the final performance is limited to the structural part of the consensus layer.
An example of parallelism in cloud computing, data generation is suitable for parallel structure, and then processed quickly by using the performance of GPU
However, when the structure of the blockchain in the cryptocurrency network cannot be changed, there are two ways to achieve parallelism.In this article, the White Project team will take Oasis, Phala, PlatON, Dfinity, Filecoin, and IOTA as examples to illustrate two main ways of realizing parallelism.(White Plan Note: The arrangement order is distinguished by relying on safe hardware parallelism and relying on improved algorithm parallelism)Two mainstream parallel ideas split
The above projects can be divided into two ways to solve the problem of expansion and parallelism.One is represented by Oasis, Phala, and PlatON. By connecting trusted computing hardware as a computing device to the network, the hardware device has high computing power and security capabilities, and can give security to the computing process and storage process. And these individual devices (or clusters) can independently undertake independent processing work, so that parallel and secure computing can be realized outside the consensus layer, which can be summarized as independent trusted computing.The second is represented by Dfinity, IOTA, and Filecoin. Through the development of new algorithms in the consensus layer, the process of block transaction confirmation is changed, and parallel verification is realized to improve the task processing capability of the chain, and then through the shaping of scalability , increasing the computing power and space of a single computing device, that is, the vertical expansion of cloud computing.The specific split is as follows:Parallel network design with trusted hardware1. First build a high-quality consensus layer.First of all, cryptocurrency requires a general ledger, which exists in the consensus layer. Oasis, Phala, and PlatON all separate the consensus layer and the computing layer. There is an independent consensus layer on top of the computing device, that is, an (or cloud) to build a high-speed consensus algorithm blockchain network.However, it is worth noting that among them, Oasis and PlatON have a relatively obvious layering concept, while Phalas layering concept is not obvious, and its design details lie in independent rules for off-chain computing devices.In order to ensure the stability of the consensus layer, this layer of Oasis chooses to build nodes through organizations and enterprises with high industry trust, and the nodes communicate through the Tendermint algorithm to quickly form a general ledger.PlatONs nodes are also built by partners, and it uses the BFT-like algorithm CBFT algorithm to optimize the efficiency of ordinary BFT algorithms.
Phalas Gatekeeper (middle part) maintains the ledger
Outside the consensus layer, they introduce computation and storage into off-chain or layer2. Parallel computing is here.2. Let the computing layer realize parallel computing.
Computational layer of Oasis (right side)
The calculation of Phala is completed in the TEE of the access node. Phalas pRuntime will be deployed in each TEE. The communication between pRuntime and the consensus layer (in theory) is independent, so the transactions processed in pRuntime do not conflict , this is the parallelism that can be achieved, because the pRuntime of each TEE is like a shard. The more such access nodes, the stronger the network performance.
Modules and Layering of PlatON Networks
Designing the computing layer as a network of trusted computing hardware is to use the parallel de-scaling and scalability of the computing layer. We may think that migrating calculations outside the consensus layer does not really achieve parallel computing.However, the hardware with trusted computing and the consensus layer are integrated with the consensus layer because of their security and close connection. In theory, for the security of off-chain computing, a general ledger concept or other concepts under the chain will be required. How to control security. But with the help of trusted computing hardware, there is no need for this ledger to provide off-chain security protection.For comparison, Ethereum 2.0, the beacon chain is the general ledger. If shards have been deployed, each shard can process tasks independently, but in Oasis, Phala, and PlatON, it is replaced by trusted hardware The computing part of the sharding.Design of Parallel Processing Through Algorithms
1. Develop new algorithms.Represented by Dfinity, IOTA, and Filecoin, after the algorithm is developed, tasks can be processed in parallel without changing the block confirmation process to speed up the confirmation speed.Here we must first mention that if parallelism is implemented at the algorithm level, the main implementation will be to change the rules of algorithm calculation, which also changes the functional logic of the algorithm performance. For example, if the PoW algorithm is changed, it will change the calculation of random numbers and packaging in the PoW algorithm , Broadcast logic.
Dfinitys consensus confirmation process, the signature part on the left has a parallel effect
Transaction Confirmation Model of Tangle Algorithm
The revision of Filecoin in parallel is the parallel processing of storage tasks, because the storage part of Filecoin will completely calculate the stored data, and this process is extremely long (by comparison). Therefore, parallelism and speed-up are very important. At present, it uses the updated NSE algorithm.
Dismantling of the FilecoinNSE algorithm, you can observe the layer part on the left
Algorithmically solves the parallel problem, then some auxiliary functions are needed.IOTAs Tangle has no time limit in the ordinary block structure, so in order to reach a consensus, it needs the help of a transaction validator to confirm which transactions form a consensus.Dfinity has improved the algorithm, matching it with subnets, data centers, and containers. Subnets are like shards one by one, and data centers are the underlying network deployment of the Dfinity network, which requires the participation of data centers, which means that the network The basic processing ability is very strong. On the subnet, the container is an established independent operating unit, which can be compared to the smart contract of the blockchain, and the combination and interaction of the container can achieve complexity.After the NSE algorithm processes the data in parallel, Filecoin performs storage replication and packaged storage of space-time proofs. These parts guarantee the consistency of the Filecoin ledger. Other development parts rely on the tools provided by the official team and ecosystem.What to do after cloudification is parallelized?The above 6 cryptocurrency projects have theoretically broken through the performance limitations of the blockchain in parallel, so what is left for the project next?The author believes that it is how to make these functions available to developers through the development of network tools. The goal of using the cryptocurrency network is, most importantly, to be able to develop DApps and develop decentralized businesses in a broad sense.Even if the performance of the infrastructure is high, the infrastructure will be in vain without developers making application time. Developers determine the application generation of the chain, and the application generation determines the value created and contained in the chain.Just like traditional Internet developers, they have entered the era of cloud-based development from the rudimentary basic development. The cloud computing platform has provided developers with an extremely high-quality experience.Dare to ask whether todays cryptocurrency network can use the service-oriented architecture of the cloud computing platform as an example to form a wave of development. After the parallelization of the cloud, the cryptocurrency just broke through the wellhead, can you continue to rise to the sky? 
