Title: A survey on blockchain architecture and consensus mechanism: design vulnerability and security analysis

Authors: Shashikant Sharma; Dharmender Singh Kushwaha

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj, India

Abstract: Today for an organisation, data security is the most crucial topic. An organisation needs to protect its information against cyberattacks. Cryptography, DLT, and blockchain technology provide higher security for data storage and prevent any cyberattack. The most prominent reasons for using this technology are its specific properties, such as decentralisation, transparency, autonomy (without human interaction), and robustness. This paper discusses the performance and limitations of the existing blockchain architecture, consensus mechanism, and the security aspect of the consensus mechanism in an organised way. This survey presents systematic reviews of blockchain architectures, consensus mechanisms, the performance analysis of the current blockchain consensus mechanisms, and the vulnerabilities and types of attacks. The aim is to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art platform where a beginner can swiftly move on to research aspects.

Keywords: blockchain; distributed ledger technology; decentralisation; consensus mechanism; byzantine fault-tolerance; security.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCC.2024.142206

International Journal of Cloud Computing, 2024 Vol.13 No.5, pp.485 - 547

Received: 29 Aug 2023
Accepted: 11 Dec 2023
Published online: 14 Oct 2024 *

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