Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce
Abstract Modern distributed data management systems face a new challenge: how can autonomous, mutually distrusting parties cooperate safely and effectively? Addressing this challenge brings up familiar questions from classical distributed systems: how to combine multiple steps into a si...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136871 |
| _version_ | 1826210418819858432 |
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| author | Herlihy, Maurice Liskov, Barbara Shrira, Liuba |
| author_facet | Herlihy, Maurice Liskov, Barbara Shrira, Liuba |
| author_sort | Herlihy, Maurice |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Abstract
Modern distributed data management systems face a new challenge: how can autonomous, mutually distrusting parties cooperate safely and effectively? Addressing this challenge brings up familiar questions from classical distributed systems: how to combine multiple steps into a single atomic action, how to recover from failures, and how to synchronize concurrent access to data. Nevertheless, each of these issues requires rethinking when participants are autonomous and potentially adversarial. We propose the notion of a cross-chain deal, a new way to structure complex distributed computations that manage assets in an adversarial setting. Deals are inspired by classical atomic transactions, but are necessarily different, in important ways, to accommodate the decentralized and untrusting nature of the exchange. We describe novel safety and liveness properties, along with two alternative protocols for implementing cross-chain deals in a system of independent blockchain ledgers. One protocol, based on synchronous communication, is fully decentralized, while the other, based on semi-synchronous communication, requires a globally shared ledger. We also prove that some degree of centralization is required in the semi-synchronous communication model. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:49:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/136871 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:49:35Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1368712021-11-02T03:11:10Z Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce Herlihy, Maurice Liskov, Barbara Shrira, Liuba Abstract Modern distributed data management systems face a new challenge: how can autonomous, mutually distrusting parties cooperate safely and effectively? Addressing this challenge brings up familiar questions from classical distributed systems: how to combine multiple steps into a single atomic action, how to recover from failures, and how to synchronize concurrent access to data. Nevertheless, each of these issues requires rethinking when participants are autonomous and potentially adversarial. We propose the notion of a cross-chain deal, a new way to structure complex distributed computations that manage assets in an adversarial setting. Deals are inspired by classical atomic transactions, but are necessarily different, in important ways, to accommodate the decentralized and untrusting nature of the exchange. We describe novel safety and liveness properties, along with two alternative protocols for implementing cross-chain deals in a system of independent blockchain ledgers. One protocol, based on synchronous communication, is fully decentralized, while the other, based on semi-synchronous communication, requires a globally shared ledger. We also prove that some degree of centralization is required in the semi-synchronous communication model. 2021-11-01T14:33:54Z 2021-11-01T14:33:54Z 2021-08-20 2021-08-22T03:10:45Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136871 PUBLISHER_CC en https://doi.org/10.1007/s00778-021-00686-1 Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Author(s) application/pdf Springer Berlin Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
| spellingShingle | Herlihy, Maurice Liskov, Barbara Shrira, Liuba Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce |
| title | Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce |
| title_full | Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce |
| title_fullStr | Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce |
| title_short | Cross-chain deals and adversarial commerce |
| title_sort | cross chain deals and adversarial commerce |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136871 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT herlihymaurice crosschaindealsandadversarialcommerce AT liskovbarbara crosschaindealsandadversarialcommerce AT shriraliuba crosschaindealsandadversarialcommerce |