---
_id: '8302'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: While showing great promise, Bitcoin requires users to wait tens of minutes
    for transactions to commit, and even then, offering only probabilistic guarantees.
    This paper introduces ByzCoin, a novel Byzantine consensus protocol that leverages
    scalable collective signing to commit Bitcoin transactions irreversibly within
    seconds. ByzCoin achieves Byzantine consensus while preserving Bitcoin’s open
    membership by dynamically forming hash power-proportionate consensus groups that
    represent recently-successful block miners. ByzCoin employs communication trees
    to optimize transaction commitment and verification under normal operation while
    guaranteeing safety and liveness under Byzantine faults, up to a near-optimal
    tolerance of f faulty group members among 3f + 2 total. ByzCoin mitigates double
    spending and selfish mining attacks by producing collectively signed transaction
    blocks within one minute of transaction submission. Tree-structured communication
    further reduces this latency to less than 30 seconds. Due to these optimizations,
    ByzCoin achieves a throughput higher than Paypal currently handles, with a confirmation
    latency of 15-20 seconds.
article_processing_charge: No
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Eleftherios
  full_name: Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios
  id: f5983044-d7ef-11ea-ac6d-fd1430a26d30
  last_name: Kokoris Kogias
- first_name: Philipp
  full_name: Jovanovic, Philipp
  last_name: Jovanovic
- first_name: Nicolas
  full_name: Gailly, Nicolas
  last_name: Gailly
- first_name: Ismail
  full_name: Khoffi, Ismail
  last_name: Khoffi
- first_name: Linus
  full_name: Gasser, Linus
  last_name: Gasser
- first_name: Bryan
  full_name: Ford, Bryan
  last_name: Ford
citation:
  ama: 'Kokoris Kogias E, Jovanovic P, Gailly N, Khoffi I, Gasser L, Ford B. Enhancing
    bitcoin security and performance with strong consistency via collective signing.
    In: <i>Proceedings of the 25th USENIX Conference on Security Symposium</i>. USENIX
    Association; 2016:279–296.'
  apa: 'Kokoris Kogias, E., Jovanovic, P., Gailly, N., Khoffi, I., Gasser, L., &#38;
    Ford, B. (2016). Enhancing bitcoin security and performance with strong consistency
    via collective signing. In <i>Proceedings of the 25th USENIX Conference on Security
    Symposium</i> (pp. 279–296). Austin, TX, United States: USENIX Association.'
  chicago: Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios, Philipp Jovanovic, Nicolas Gailly, Ismail
    Khoffi, Linus Gasser, and Bryan Ford. “Enhancing Bitcoin Security and Performance
    with Strong Consistency via Collective Signing.” In <i>Proceedings of the 25th
    USENIX Conference on Security Symposium</i>, 279–296. USENIX Association, 2016.
  ieee: E. Kokoris Kogias, P. Jovanovic, N. Gailly, I. Khoffi, L. Gasser, and B. Ford,
    “Enhancing bitcoin security and performance with strong consistency via collective
    signing,” in <i>Proceedings of the 25th USENIX Conference on Security Symposium</i>,
    Austin, TX, United States, 2016, pp. 279–296.
  ista: 'Kokoris Kogias E, Jovanovic P, Gailly N, Khoffi I, Gasser L, Ford B. 2016.
    Enhancing bitcoin security and performance with strong consistency via collective
    signing. Proceedings of the 25th USENIX Conference on Security Symposium. SEC:
    Security Symposium, 279–296.'
  mla: Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios, et al. “Enhancing Bitcoin Security and Performance
    with Strong Consistency via Collective Signing.” <i>Proceedings of the 25th USENIX
    Conference on Security Symposium</i>, USENIX Association, 2016, pp. 279–296.
  short: E. Kokoris Kogias, P. Jovanovic, N. Gailly, I. Khoffi, L. Gasser, B. Ford,
    in:, Proceedings of the 25th USENIX Conference on Security Symposium, USENIX Association,
    2016, pp. 279–296.
conference:
  end_date: 2016-08-12
  location: Austin, TX, United States
  name: 'SEC: Security Symposium'
  start_date: 2016-08-10
date_created: 2020-08-26T12:08:35Z
date_published: 2016-09-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2021-01-12T08:18:00Z
day: '01'
extern: '1'
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '1602.06997'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.06997
month: '09'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: 279–296
publication: Proceedings of the 25th USENIX Conference on Security Symposium
publication_identifier:
  isbn:
  - '9781931971324'
publication_status: published
publisher: USENIX Association
quality_controlled: '1'
status: public
title: Enhancing bitcoin security and performance with strong consistency via collective
  signing
type: conference
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
year: '2016'
...