An Analysis of Blockchain Consistency in Asynchronous Networks: Deriving a Neat Bound
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Formal analyses of blockchain protocols have received much attention recently. Consistency results of Nakamoto's blockchain protocol are often expressed in a quantity c, which denotes the expected number of network delays before some block is mined. With μ (resp., ν) denoting the fraction of computational power controlled by benign miners (resp., the adversary), where μ + ν = 1, we prove for the first time that to ensure the consistency property of Nakamoto's blockchain protocol in an asynchronous network, it suffices to have c to be just slightly greater than 2μ/ln (μ/ν). Such a result is both neater and stronger than existing ones. In the proof, we formulate novel Markov chains which characterize the numbers of mined blocks in different rounds.
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