KR102216858B1 - An Automated Method of Electing and Dismissing Delegate Node of Blockchain Network - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is an automated method for electing and dismissing a delegate node of a blockchain network. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the method for electing and dismissing a delegate node of a blockchain network includes the following steps of: in a case wherein candidate nodes of participant nodes of a blockchain set as a candidate node or voting node do not receive a message broadcast from a delegate node for a preset time, transmitting a voting request message along with an electronic signature to each of the other participant nodes, and then, switching the state of each of the candidate nodes from a candidate state to a nominee state; delivering election voting details from a candidate node, obtaining a majority of voting responses, of the candidate nodes to an endorser node; if the endorser node verifies whether the voting is fair based on the election voting details, enabling an orderer node to create a transaction for registering the candidate node, obtaining a majority of voting responses, as a delegate node into the blockchain and spreading the transaction to all the participant nodes; and electing the candidate node, obtaining a majority of voting responses, as a delegate node, and then, broadcasting a preset message from the elected delegate node. Each of the participant nodes has a right to dismiss the delegate node, the voting node performs a voting activity, and the candidate nodes starts a voting activity and an election to be a delegate node.

Description

An Automated Method of Electing and Dismissing Delegate Node of Blockchain Network}

The present invention relates to a technology for electing and dismissing a representative node of a block chain network, and more specifically, to a method for fairly electing and dismissing a representative node without concentrating authority on a specific node in the block chain network. .

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that emerged as the base technology of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BitCoin), and is a distributed public database (Tapscott, D., which cannot be changed or modified once it is completed by chaining transactions in blocks). Tapscott, A., 2016. Blockchain revolution: how the technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world.Penguin.), it has the following components.

(1) Blockchain network: connection of mutually independent and distributed nodes (peers)

(2) Distributed Blockchain: Ledger composed of connected blocks

(3) Node: An application or system that performs the functions of a blockchain

(4) Blockchain User: User application or wallet

This technology distributes the centralized management authority of the existing leader/follower architecture style distributed database to multiple nodes, so that a trusted database can be maintained without the assumption of trust in the management organization. However, blockchain technology has a limitation in that the transaction processing speed is slow due to performance degradation and propagation delay problems caused by a series of consensus procedures. To improve the scalability of the blockchain, Cosmos (Kwon, J., Buchman, E., Cosmos: A network of distributed ledgers. White Paper. 2017. https://cosmos.network/whitepaper), EOS (Cox, T. EOS.IO Technical White Paper. 2017. https://github.com/EOSIO/Documentation/blob/master/TechnicalWhitePaper.md), bitshares (Schuh, F., Larimer, D., 2017. Bitshares 2.0: General overview.https://bitshares.org) commonly uses Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPos). DPoS forms a representative node among participating nodes and delegates the authority to verify and create blocks to them. Cosmos will elect 100, EOS and Steemit will elect 21, and bitshares will elect 101 representative nodes. These methods can significantly reduce the cost of verifying and generating blocks because only a few representative nodes participate in consensus. However, since voting rights are granted in proportion to the amount of shares, for example, tokens, coins, etc. owned by a node, there is a limitation that a representative node can be determined by voting by a few nodes. Although the general node can monitor the representative node to prevent inappropriate behavior, this function is also concentrated in the node with a large stake. In addition, these have a limitation that the user must manually vote for the representative node.

The Raft algorithm (Ongaro, D., Ousterhout, J., 2014. In search of an understandable consensus algorithm. In 2014 {USENIX} Annual Technical Conference, pp. 305-319.) is a method of commanding a client from multiple nodes in a cluster. It is an automated distributed consensus algorithm that manages the states of nodes equally by performing the same. This algorithm is used to ensure safety by blocking problems caused by node defects. For example, if a node produces an incorrect result due to a defect, the node is rejected by the algorithm because it cannot reach consensus with other nodes, and the result is converged to the result generated by a number of nodes without defects. Is obtained. In order to keep the nodes of a cluster in the same state, Raft elects the leader of the cluster.

1 is a diagram showing a state transition diagram of a node showing a procedure for selecting a leader of Raft, and a process of selecting a follower node as a leader node is as follows.

1) The initial state of a node is a follower, and when a follower node receives a vote from other nodes, it immediately votes.

2) The follower node periodically receives a heartbeat message from the leader node. However, due to the problem of the leader node, if the heartbeat message is not received during the timeout period, after requesting votes from other nodes, it is converted into a candidate state. In order to reduce the probability of winning a tie, the timeout time may be set to an arbitrary value, and at this time, the value of the global variable term may be increased.

3-1) As a result of the voting, if the majority of the votes are voted, it will switch to the leader status.

3-2) As a result of the voting, if there is a tie or the majority of the votes are not voted, the candidate node requests another node to vote.

3-3) During voting, if a heartbeat message is received from another node, it is converted to a follower state.

4) The leader node broadcasts a heartbeat message to other nodes.

5) When a heartbeat message is received from a node with a higher term than itself, it switches to the follower state.

The elected leader duplicates the commands received from the client and delivers them to other nodes, and the received node maintains the same state as the leader by executing the duplicated commands in the same order.

However, since Raft's voting algorithm does not take into account the large performance difference between nodes and the possibility of inappropriate behavior of nodes, there is a limit to selecting a reliable representative node for the blockchain.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for improving scalability while maintaining the reliability of a blockchain system by fairly electing and dismissing a representative node without concentrating authority on a specific node in a blockchain network.

A method for selecting and dismissing a representative node of a blockchain network according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a preset schedule in which a message broadcast from the representative node in the candidate node among participating nodes in the block chain set as a candidate node or a voting node Transmitting a voting request message to each of the other participating nodes together with an electronic signature when not received for a period of time, and then switching the state of each of the candidate nodes from a candidate state to a nominee state; Transmitting the election voting details to an endorser from a candidate node that has obtained a majority vote response among the candidate nodes; If the verification node verifies that the voting was legitimately made based on the election voting history, the order node generates a transaction to register the candidate node that has obtained a majority vote response on the blockchain as a representative node, and all Propagating to participating nodes; And broadcasting a preset message from the elected representative node after selecting a candidate node that has obtained the majority vote response as a representative node, wherein each of the participating nodes can dismiss the representative node. It has authority, and the voting node performs a voting activity, and the candidate node performs a voting activity and a function of initiating an election to become a representative node.

Furthermore, in the method for selecting and dismissing a representative node of a blockchain network according to an embodiment of the present invention, a request for dismissal of the elected representative node and a dismissal vote from any one of the participating nodes to other participating nodes step; Transmitting a dismissal voting response to the dismissal vote from each of the other participating nodes together with an electronic signature to the any one node; Transmitting the dismissal voting details for the dismissal vote to the verification node when a majority of nodes agree to the dismissal vote based on the transmitted dismissal voting response from the one node; If the verification node verifies that the dismissal voting was properly made based on the dismissal voting history, the ordering node creates a transaction to register the dismissal of the elected representative node in the blockchain and propagates it to all participating nodes. step; And it may further include the step of dismissing the elected representative node.

The method of selecting and dismissing the representative node of the blockchain network may be performed based on the Hyperledger Fabric framework.

Communication between two participating nodes among the participating nodes uses a peer-to-peer (P2P) message, and communication between the participating nodes and any one of the verification node and the ordering node uses a blockchain message. I can.

The steps of creating a transaction for registration as the representative node and propagating it to all participating nodes and creating a transaction for registering the dismissal of the elected representative node on the blockchain and disseminating it to all participating nodes require an electronic signature. By verifying the identity of the voters through the voter and the vote history, it is possible to verify whether the vote and the dismissal vote have been properly made.

According to the embodiments of the present invention, since the representative node of the blockchain network can be fairly elected and dismissed, instead of verifying and creating blocks, all nodes only need to manage the block chain. Network performance can be significantly improved.

According to embodiments of the present invention, a representative node can be elected without concentrating the authority to a specific node, and in order to limit the authority to the elected representative node, all participating nodes have the authority to dismiss the representative node. In addition, the reliability of the representative node can be increased by balancing authority.

According to the embodiments of the present invention, since the representative node of the blockchain network can be elected and dismissed fairly, the problem of scalability can be fundamentally solved.

According to embodiments of the present invention, if the present invention is used to improve the scalability problem of a blockchain system, a small number of representative nodes can significantly reduce the cost by verifying and generating blocks of the blockchain.

1 is a diagram showing a state transition diagram of a node showing a Raft leader election procedure.
2 shows a state transition diagram showing a process in which a representative node of a blockchain network is elected in the present invention.
3 shows an exemplary diagram for a representative node election scenario of the present invention.
4 shows an exemplary diagram for a representative node dismissal scenario of the present invention.

Advantages and features of the present invention, and a method of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail together with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but will be implemented in a variety of different forms, only these embodiments make the disclosure of the present invention complete, and common knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains. It is provided to completely inform the scope of the invention to those who have, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims.

The terms used in this specification are for describing exemplary embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. In this specification, the singular form also includes the plural form unless specifically stated in the phrase. As used in the specification, "comprises" and/or "comprising" refers to the presence of one or more other components, steps, actions and/or elements, and/or elements, steps, actions and/or elements mentioned. Or does not exclude additions.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in the present specification may be used as meanings that can be commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. In addition, terms defined in a commonly used dictionary are not interpreted ideally or excessively unless explicitly defined specifically.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals are used for the same elements in the drawings, and duplicate descriptions for the same elements are omitted.

In the case of the representative node election system of the existing studies, voting rights are exercised in proportion to the amount of assets each node has. Therefore, the authority to elect a representative node is concentrated on nodes with many assets.

Embodiments of the present invention aim to improve scalability while maintaining the reliability of the blockchain system by fairly electing and dismissing a representative node without concentrating authority on a specific node in the blockchain network.

At this time, the present invention may elect and dismiss a representative node of the blockchain network in consideration of the following two functions. Here, the two functions are: First, the representative node of the block chain must be able to perform the function of the block chain as a representative, so it must be divided into a node that can be elected as a representative node and an impossible node according to the capability of the node, and second, the representative node To alleviate the concentration of authority, participating nodes should have the authority to dismiss the representative node.

The present invention extends the Raft consensus algorithm to give equal voting rights to participating nodes in the blockchain network to relieve the concentration of authority, as well as through a function that allows general nodes to monitor and dismiss inappropriate behavior of the representative node. Improper behavior of the representative node can be prevented.

The method of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4 as follows.

2 shows a state transition diagram showing a process in which a representative node of a blockchain network is elected in the present invention.

The method of the present invention can extend and supplement Raft's leader node election algorithm in five elements, in order to select and remove a representative node of a blockchain network without concentrating authority on a specific node, and the five elements are 1) node Type and role, 2) node status, 3) message type, 4) representative node election and registration, 5) representative node dismissal.

These five factors will be described as follows.

1) Node type and role: Participating nodes in the blockchain can select either a voting node or a candidate node. Voting nodes are only capable of voting activities, but candidate nodes can initiate elections to become representative nodes as well as voting activities. Therefore, the user can set the node type according to the purpose. All nodes can monitor the representative node's inappropriate behavior and vote for dismissal of the representative node when detected. This prevents the concentration of authority to the representative node.

2) Node state: Raft is used to manage the state of multiple nodes equally, while the method of the present invention is used to elect a representative node of the blockchain. Due to this difference in purpose, the method of the present invention uses a different term than Raft. Raft defines the state of a node as a follower, a candidate, and a leader, whereas the method of the present invention defines the state of a voting node as Voting, and the state of a candidate node is defined as a candidate (Candidate), It is defined as Nominee or Delegate.

3) Message Type: Unlike Raft, the method of the present invention uses two types of messages. The first is a peer-to-peer (P2P) message, which is used for communication between two nodes. In the method of the present invention, this message type is used for activities that are not registered in the blockchain, such as voting request/response and dismissal request/response. The second is a blockchain message, which is used to verify or register given data on the blockchain. In the method of the present invention, this message type is used to verify the voter's voting history, register the voting details and results through a transaction in the blockchain, and disclose them to all participating nodes.

4) Representative node election and registration: Like Raft, representative nodes are elected through voting by participating nodes. However, the method of the present invention uses an electronic signature to verify the identity of voters and to verify the voting history. A signed ballot certifies that the voter with voting authority has voted correctly. In addition, the method of the present invention registers (commit) the vote details and results in the blockchain in order to disclose the fact that the representative node has been fairly elected through voting. Through this, it is possible to prevent fraudulent behavior from occurring. The elected representative node announces that the representative node is operating normally by broadcasting a heartbeat message.

5) Dismissal of Representative Node: All participating nodes may vote for dismissal for reasons such as inappropriate behavior or ineligibility of the representative node. When voting for dismissal, an electronic signature is used to verify the voters' identity and voting history. In the event of a majority vote, the representative node is dismissed and the voting details and dismissal are registered on the blockchain. When the representative node is dismissed, the candidate nodes begin voting to become the representative node.

The process of selecting and dismissing a representative node for the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

3 shows an exemplary diagram for a representative node election scenario according to the present invention, and illustrates an exemplary diagram for a scenario in which two candidate nodes and three voting nodes elect a representative node.

Here, the scenario of the present invention may be based on the hyperledger fabric framework.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the representative node election scenario is described, if the candidate node does not receive the representative node's heartbeat message for a predetermined time, it transmits a voting request message to all nodes together with an electronic signature, Transition from the candidate state to the nominee state. After that, the node that first received the majority of the votes is verified by passing the voting details to the endorser. The verification node verifies that the voting was done correctly by checking the voter's signature and the ballot. When verification is complete, the orderer creates and propagates a transaction to register the representative node on the blockchain, and notifies all participating nodes. The elected representative node broadcasts a heartbeat message to inform that it is operating normally. Of course, the remaining candidate nodes switch from the nominee state to the candidate state, and the elected representative node changes the state from the nominee state to the delegate state.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary diagram for a representative node dismissal scenario of the present invention, and as in FIG. 3, an exemplary diagram for a scenario in which two candidate nodes and three voting nodes dismiss a representative node.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, when a representative node dismissal scenario is described, when a participating node detects an inappropriate behavior of the representative node, a dismissal vote is requested along with the reason for dismissal. Nodes that are requested to vote for dismissal check the reason and respond with an electronic signature. If the majority of nodes agree, it is verified by the verification node, and if the vote is valid, a transaction to register the dismissal of the representative node in the blockchain is created through the order node, and the representative node is dismissed after disseminating it to all participating nodes. Is registered in the blockchain. The candidate node, who learns that the representative node has been dismissed through the blockchain, follows the scenario for selecting the representative node described in FIG. 3 in order to become the representative node.

As described above, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the representative node of the block chain network can be fairly elected and dismissed, instead of verifying and generating the block, all nodes only need to manage the block chain. , The performance of the blockchain network can be significantly improved.

In addition, in the method according to an embodiment of the present invention, a representative node can be elected without concentrating the authority to a specific node, and in order to limit the authority to the elected representative node, all participating nodes have the authority to dismiss the representative node. By having it, it is possible to increase the reliability of the representative node by balancing authority.

In addition, the method according to the embodiment of the present invention can fundamentally solve the scalability problem because the representative node of the blockchain network can be fairly elected and dismissed.

The software may include a computer program, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more of these, configuring the processing unit to behave as desired or processed independently or collectively. You can command the device. Software and/or data may be interpreted by a processing device or to provide instructions or data to a processing device, of any type of machine, component, physical device, virtual equipment, computer storage medium or device. , Or may be permanently or temporarily embodyed in a transmitted signal wave. The software may be distributed over networked computer systems and stored or executed in a distributed manner. Software and data may be stored on one or more computer-readable recording media.

The method according to the embodiments may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be specially designed and configured for the embodiment, or may be known and usable to those skilled in computer software. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes, optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, and magnetic media such as floptical disks. -A hardware device specially configured to store and execute program instructions such as magneto-optical media, and ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of the program instructions include not only machine language codes such as those produced by a compiler, but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operation of the embodiment, and vice versa.

Although the embodiments have been described by the limited embodiments and drawings as described above, various modifications and variations can be made from the above description to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example, the described techniques are performed in a different order from the described method, and/or components such as a system, structure, device, circuit, etc. described are combined or combined in a form different from the described method, or other components Alternatively, even if substituted or substituted by an equivalent, an appropriate result can be achieved.

Therefore, other implementations, other embodiments, and claims and equivalents fall within the scope of the claims to be described later.

Claims (5)

Depending on the node's capabilities, a message broadcasted from the representative node from the candidate node among participating nodes in the blockchain that can be elected as a representative node or a voting node that cannot be selected as a representative node is not received for a predetermined period of time. If not, transmitting a voting request message to each of the other participating nodes together with an electronic signature, and then switching the state of each of the candidate nodes from a candidate state to a nominee state;
Transmitting the details of election voting from a candidate node that first obtained a majority vote response among the candidate nodes converted to the nomination candidate state to an endorser;
If the verification node verifies that the voting was legitimately made based on the election voting history, the order node generates a transaction to register the candidate node that has obtained a majority vote response on the blockchain as a representative node, and all Propagating to participating nodes;
Selecting a candidate node that has obtained the majority vote response as a representative node and broadcasting a preset message from the selected representative node; And
Converting the candidate node elected as the representative node from the nominated candidate state to the representative state, and converting the remaining candidate nodes excluding the candidate node elected as the representative node from the nominated candidate state to the candidate state
Including,
Each of the participating nodes
In order to prevent the concentration of authority to the representative node, the representative node has the authority to conduct a dismissal vote to dismiss the representative node when inappropriate behavior of the representative node is detected by monitoring the inappropriate behavior of the representative node,
The voting node is
Conduct voting activities,
The candidate node is
It performs voting activities and functions to initiate elections to become representative nodes,
Communication between two participating nodes among the participating nodes is
Use peer-to-peer (P2P) messages,
Communication between the participating nodes and any one of the verification node and the order node
Blockchain messages are used to verify given data or register on the blockchain,
Requesting a reason for dismissal and a vote for dismissal of the elected representative node from any one of the participating nodes from other participating nodes;
Transmitting a dismissal voting response to the dismissal vote from each of the other participating nodes together with an electronic signature to any one node;
Transmitting the dismissal voting details for the dismissal vote to the verification node when a majority of nodes agree to the dismissal vote based on the transmitted dismissal voting response from the one node;
If the verification node verifies that the dismissal voting was properly made based on the dismissal voting history, the ordering node creates a transaction to register the dismissal of the elected representative node in the blockchain and propagates it to all participating nodes. step; And
Dismissing the elected representative node
Including more,
The steps of creating a transaction for registration as the representative node and propagating it to all participating nodes and creating a transaction for registering the dismissal of the elected representative node in the blockchain and propagating it to all participating nodes
A method for selecting and dismissing a representative node of a blockchain network, characterized in that by verifying the identity and voting history of voters through an electronic signature, verification of whether the voting and the dismissal voting have been properly made.
delete The method of claim 1,
The method of selecting and dismissing the representative node of the blockchain network is
A method of selecting and dismissing a representative node of a blockchain network, characterized in that it is performed based on the Hyperledger Fabric framework.
delete delete

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