Analyzing the Real-World Security of the Algorand Blockchain
Author(s)
Blum, Erica; Leung, Derek; Loss, Julian; Katz, Jonathan; Rabin, Tal
Download3576915.3623167.pdf (1.155Mb)
Publisher with Creative Commons License
Publisher with Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
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.
Date issued
2023-11-15Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryPublisher
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
ISBN
979-8-4007-0050-7
Collections
The following license files are associated with this item: