Analyzing the Real-World Security of the Algorand Blockchain
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3576915.3623167.pdf
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1.16 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8c2d858df64d2c5c748aa275d1c6d742
Author(s)
Blum, Erica
Leung, Derek
Loss, Julian
Katz, Jonathan
Rabin, Tal
Date Issued
November 15, 2023
Publisher
ACM|Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security
Citation
Blum, Erica, Leung, Derek, Loss, Julian, Katz, Jonathan and Rabin, Tal. 2023. "Analyzing the Real-World Security of the Algorand Blockchain."
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The Algorand consensus protocol is interesting both in theory and in practice. On the theoretical side, to achieve adaptive security, it introduces the novel idea of player replaceability, where each step of the protocol is executed by a different randomly selected committee whose members remain secret until they send their first and only message. The protocol provides consistency under arbitrary network conditions and liveness under intermittent network partitions. On the practical side, the protocol is used to secure the Algorand cryptocurrency, whose total value is approximately 850M at the time of writing.
The Algorand protocol in use differs substantially from the protocols described in the published literature on Algorand. Despite its significance, it lacks a formal analysis. In this work, we describe and analyze the Algorand consensus protocol as deployed today in Algorand's ecosystem. We show that the overall protocol framework is sound by characterizing network conditions and parameter settings under which the protocol can be proven secure.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3576915.3623167
