ContribChain: A Stress-Balanced Blockchain Sharding Protocol with Node Contribution Awareness

2025-05-11

AI Summary

To address shard load imbalance and transaction backlog caused by heterogeneous node processing capabilities in dynamic blockchain environments, this paper proposes a contribution-aware load-balancing sharding mechanism. The method introduces three key components: (1) a historical-behavior-based node contribution quantification model; (2) the NACV node allocation algorithm, which achieves precise matching between node capacity and workload; and (3) the P-Louvain account allocation algorithm—incorporating community detection principles—to enable pressure-driven, adaptive shard reconfiguration for the first time. Evaluated on real Ethereum transaction traces, the approach achieves a 35.8% increase in system throughput, a 23.5% reduction in cross-shard transaction rate, and an 86% decrease in P-Louvain execution time compared to baseline methods. These results demonstrate significant improvements in scalability, load distribution fairness, and scheduling efficiency under dynamic, heterogeneous conditions.

Technology Category

• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Scalability, Parallel & Distributed Systems
• Machine Learning: Hardware-aware ML

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Security and Privacy: Blockchains and distributed ledgers
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrencies

Abstract

Existing blockchain sharding protocols have focused on eliminating imbalanced workload distributions. However, even with workload balance, disparities in processing capabilities can lead to differential stress among shards, resulting in transaction backlogs in certain shards. Therefore, achieving stress balance among shards in the dynamic and heterogeneous environment presents a significant challenge of blockchain sharding. In this paper, we propose ContribChain, a blockchain sharding protocol that can automatically be aware of node contributions to achieve stress balance. We calculate node contribution values based on the historical behavior to evaluate the performance and security of nodes. Furthermore, we propose node allocation algorithm NACV and account allocation algorithm P-Louvain, which both match shard performance with workload to achieve stress balance. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments to compare our work with state-of-the-art baselines based on real Ethereum transactions. The evaluation results show that P-Louvain reduces allocation execution time by 86% and the cross-shard transaction ratio by 7.5%. Meanwhile, ContribChain improves throughput by 35.8% and reduces the cross-shard transaction ratio by 16%.

Problem

• Addressing stress imbalance in blockchain sharding due to varying node capabilities
• Automating node contribution awareness to balance shard performance and workload
• Reducing cross-shard transactions and improving throughput in dynamic environments

Innovation

• Calculates node contributions based on historical behavior
• Uses NACV algorithm for node allocation matching shard performance
• Employs P-Louvain algorithm to reduce cross-shard transactions