IoTeX, Huawei, and Futurewei IIconsortium Member Engineers Share Solutions to Make Blockchains More Efficient

The Industry IoT Consortium (IIC) has detected P2P communication deficiencies influencing blockchain networks, adversely affecting transaction speed and costs, interoperability and scalability. 

According to a recently published 20-page white paper, this non-profit organization, founded by Intel, Cisco, GE, and IBM, also offered solutions that give a competitive head start to those implementing them.

The deficiencies in blockchain Peer-to-Peer communication detected after rigorous technical experimentation and research also affect the blockchain system adoption, leading to poor UX (user experience), according to IIConsoritum Co-Chair, IoTeX Head of Cryptography and Co-Founder, Dr. Xinxin Fan. He also added that Blockchain projects addressing these issues and implementing the recommendations of IIC would have a substantial competitive upper hand over other Blockchain networks. 

According to Mike McBride of Huawei, co-author of the white paper, the deficiency found in peer-to-peer communications is randomized to prevent collusion. He also added that the nature of DLTs shows their ability to remove any centralized middle person or entity that makes Blockchain networks more reliable, secure, faster, and cheaper.

Further Insight Into the P2P Communication Network

The authors of the white paper analyzed the effects of the Blockchains on the network of a service provider and whether specific distributed public ledger technologies function more efficiently than others. Experts also analyzed the potential opportunities of the service providers, leveraging DLTs to offer additional services and finding ways to improve the network’s overall performance. 

The first thing worth mentioning is that DLTs run in three ways in the networks we have today – Permissionless, Permissioned, and Hybrid. 

Permissionless is defined by the internet-wide digital currencies. Permissioned is predominantly used in supply chains, healthcare systems, and government. Lastly, the Hybrid operates like an overlay by using current internet network infrastructure and DLT nodes or members called peers. Thus, these Blockchain networks are developed on peer-to-peer networks. 

Peer-to-peer blockchain communication should be randomized to prevent collaboration among peers. This would put the security of the systems at risk and defeat the sole purpose of having a decentralized network, the white paper. 

If P2P communication is inefficient or fails, it will have a significant impact on the networks, increasing the value of the smart contract transactions.

Bad for More Blockchain Adoption

IIConsortium explained that inefficient peer-to-peer communication could negatively affect further Blockchain adoption.

Dr. Fan restated that the issues related to inefficiency will lead to additional scalability, interoperability, and challenges in data privacy that require immediate addressing. If these issues are immediately addressed, there is still a chance to improve, develop and provide new services, including DLT as a service, supply-chain integrity, energy trading, identity services, integration into several verticals, and smart contracts. 

The IIC also emphasized that firms need privacy and trustworthiness to connect logistic infrastructures and manufacturing to the industrial blockchain network. The firms are willing to reap the advantages of predictive maintenance, automated asset management, and process control.

The companies face an ongoing struggle to protect network infrastructures from malicious and ransomware attacks that disrupt services and expose customer records and communication protocols worldwide. There are several kinds of protocols related to network communication globally, and it seems that they could benefit from higher security with the integrated Blockchain network. 

The IIConsortium has figured out a way of resolving these issues by using easy routing systems known as CBSR (constraint-based service routine). CBSR can be used across domains, and it could potentially decrease wasteful communication to almost zero.