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The merits of using Ethereum MainNet as a Coordination Blockchain for Ethereum Private Sidechains

Part of: Distributed Ledger Technologies: Papers Arising from Three Australian Symposia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2020

Peter Robinson Open the ORCID record for Peter Robinson [Opens in a new window]
Peter Robinson*
Affiliation:
Protocol Engineering Group and Systems (PegaSys), ConsenSys, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, e-mail: peter.robinson@consensys.net School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia
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Abstract

A Coordination Blockchain is a blockchain that coordinates activities of multiple private blockchains. This paper discusses the pros and cons of using Ethereum MainNet, the public Ethereum blockchain, as a Coordination Blockchain. The requirements Ethereum MainNet needs to fulfil to perform this role are analyzed within the context of Ethereum Private Sidechains, a private blockchain technology which allows many blockchains to be operated in parallel, and allows atomic crosschain transactions to execute across blockchains. We found that Ethereum MainNet is best suited to storing long-term static data that need to be widely available, such as the Ethereum Registration Authority information. However, due to Ethereum MainNet’s probabilistic finality, it is not well suited to information that needs to be available and acted upon immediately, such as the Sidechain Public Keys and Atomic Crosschain Transaction state information that need to be accessible prior to the first atomic crosschain transaction being issued on a sidechain. Although this paper examined the use of Ethereum MainNet as a Coordination Blockchain within reference to Ethereum Private Sidechains, the discussions and observations of the typical tasks a Coordination Blockchain may be expected to perform are applicable more widely to any multi-blockchain system.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 35 , 2020 , e30
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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