Project description
Consensusless algorithms for trustworthy asset transfers
Bitcoin and other blockchain-based protocols implement a decentralised asset transfer system. The problem lies in prohibiting a participant from engaging in double-spending. The EU-funded AT2 project addresses this challenge. Called asynchronous trustworthy transfers, it is a generic asynchronous protocol to solve the secure causal broadcast problem. More specifically, the project is developing a class of consensusless algorithms as consensus is unnecessary for asset transfers. The project has shown that it is enough to solve a problem called secure causal broadcast to implement trust in any tokenised application – a significantly simpler option. The goal of this project is to prepare for its commercialisation.
Objective
Although Nakamoto’s original blockchain protocol has spurred significant innovation and financial interest in the last decade, its energy consumption becomes problematic. Besides, transaction latencies are prohibitively high and the system sustains a very low throughput. We have witnessed hundreds of alternative solutions in the last decade. Each seeks to reduce energy consumption, to obtain lower latency, or to improve throughput. All proposed alternatives, however, sacrifice either trustworthiness or efficiency. In retrospect, this is not surprising. All these solutions seek to solve a notoriously difficult problem: consensus. In short, the set of nodes in the network have to agree on the same position of a block in the chain, despite the possibility of malicious behaviour of some of the nodes, or network delays. The consensus problem has been the most studied problem in distributed computing, and many impossibility and lower bound results were established. These results translate into inherent trade-offs between trust and efficiency. In the context of our ERC AOC (Adversary-Oriented Computing) project (advanced grant), we worked on classifying distributed computing problems according to their hardness. While doing so, we revisited the issue of implementing a trustworthy payment system, i.e. the problem solved in Nakamoto’s paper. This led us to a very interesting discovery: Current blockchain protocols are tackling a problem, i.e. consensus, which is unnecessarily strong for their purpose of building a payment system. More specifically, we have shown that it is enough to solve a problem called secure causal broadcast to implement trust in any tokenized application. This is significantly simpler than consensus. We devised a generic asynchronous protocol to solve the secure causal broadcast problem, which we called AT2, Asynchronous Trustworthy Transactions, which we patented. The goal of this project is to pave the path to its commercialization.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum Pilot
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-PoC
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.