2014/12/26 by Christian Decker, Jochen Seidel, Decker, Christian +3 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · #Artificial intelligence #Block (permutation group theory) #Blockchain Technology Applications and Security #Certification #Computer science #Computer security #Consistency (knowledge bases) #Cryptography and Data Security #Cryptography and Security (cs.CR) #Database #Database transaction #Distributed #Distributed systems and fault tolerance #Economics #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Mathematics #Parallel #Payment #Payment system #State (computer science) #World Wide Web #and Cluster Computing (cs.DC) #cs.CR #cs.DC
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1412.7935
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)
arxiv created 2014/12/26 · openalex publication_date 2014/12/26 · arxiv updated 2014/12/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Bitcoin system only provides eventual consistency. For everyday life, the time to confirm a Bitcoin transaction is prohibitively slow. In this paper we propose a new system, built on the Bitcoin blockchain, which enables strong consistency. Our system, PeerCensus, acts as a certification authority, manages peer identities in a peer-to-peer network, and ultimately enhances Bitcoin and similar systems with strong consistency. Our extensive analysis shows that PeerCensus is in a secure state with high probability. We also show how Discoin, a Bitcoin variant that decouples block creation and transaction confirmation, can be built on top of PeerCensus, enabling real-time payments. Unlike Bitcoin, once transactions in Discoin are committed, they stay committed.