Abstract
Blockchain offers immutability, transparency, and security in a decentralised way for many applications, including finance, supply chain, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Due to its popularity and widespread adoption, it has started to process an enormous number of transactions, placing an ever-growing demand for storage. As the technology gains more popularity, the storage requirements of blockchain will increase, necessitating storage optimisation solutions. Proposed solutions for blockchain storage efficiency range from reducing the degree of data replication to redacting or compressing data. Each of these storage optimisation categories involves a complex interplay with the timing of blockchain data processing and mining, yet no existing survey analyses these dimensions. This article surveys the state-of-the-art blockchain storage optimisations and categorises them into replication-based, redaction-based, and content-based optimisations. Replication-based optimisations focus on reducing duplication of blockchain data shared among participants after committing data on the blockchain ledger. Redaction-based optimisations allow users to modify or delete data already committed on the ledger in various ways, while content-based optimisations compress data before or after committing it to the ledger. We analyse and evaluate these solutions in the aspects of security, decentralisation, and scalability. We present the advantages and disadvantages of the existing blockchain storage optimisations and comprehensively compare them. Additionally, we discuss the opportunities and challenges for future work to optimise blockchain storage.
- [1] . 2020. Buterin’s scalability trilemma viewed through a state-change-based classification for common consensus algorithms. In 10th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC’20). 0727–0736.
DOI: Google ScholarCross Ref - [2] . 2017. Redactable blockchain–or–rewriting history in Bitcoin and friends. In IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P’17). IEEE, 111–126.Google Scholar
- [3] . 2022. BxTB: Cross-chain exchanges of Bitcoins for all Bitcoin wrapped tokens. In 4th International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA’22). IEEE, 143–150.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [4] . 2015. Trend of centralization in Bitcoin’s distributed network. In IEEE/ACIS 16th International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing (SNPD’15). IEEE, 1–6.Google Scholar
- [5] . 2014. Succinct Non-interactive zero knowledge for a Von Neumann architecture. In 23rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security’14). 781–796.Google Scholar
- [6] . 2014. IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System.
arxiv:1407.3561 [cs.NI].Google Scholar - [7] . 2017. Filecoin: A Decentralized Storage Network.
Whitepaper . Protocol Labs. Retrieved from https://filecoin.io/filecoin.pdfGoogle Scholar - [8] . 2020. Blockchain-based decentralized storage networks: A survey. J. Netw. Comput. Applic. 162 (2020), 102656.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [9] . 2019. The scalability challenge of Ethereum: An initial quantitative analysis. In IEEE International Conference on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE’19). IEEE, 167–176.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [10] . 2022. Blockchain explorer, analytics and web services. Retrieved from https://blockchair.com/bitcoinGoogle Scholar
- [11] . 2020. Mina: Decentralized Cryptocurrency at Scale. Whitepaper New York University O (1) Labs, New York, NY, 1–47.Google Scholar
- [12] . 2017. Chameleon-hashes with ephemeral trapdoors. In IACR International Workshop on Public Key Cryptography. Springer, 152–182.Google Scholar
- [13] . 2019. Dimension reduction and storage optimization techniques for distributed and big data cluster environment. In Soft Computing and Medical Bioinformatics. Springer, 47–54.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [14] . 2020. MiniChain: A lightweight protocol to combat the UTXO growth in public blockchain. J. Parallel Distrib. Comput. 143 (2020), 67–76.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [15] . 2019. Polynomial-based modifiable blockchain structure for removing fraud transactions. Fut. Gen. Comput. Syst. 99 (2019), 154–163.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [16] . 2018. Datestamping the Bitcoin and Ethereum bubbles. Finan. Res. Lett. 26 (2018), 81–88.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [17] Kyle Croman, Christian Decker, Ittay Eyal, Adem Efe Gencer, Ari Juels, Ahmed Kosba, Andrew Miller, Prateek Saxena, Elaine Shi, Emin Gün Sirer, Dawn Song, and Roger Wattenhofer. 2016. On scaling decentralized blockchains: (A Position Paper). In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Springer, 106–125.Google Scholar
- [18] . 2019. Blockchain for internet of things: A survey. IEEE Internet Things J. 6, 5 (2019), 8076–8094.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [19] . 2019. Jidar: A jigsaw-like data reduction approach without trust assumptions for Bitcoin system. In IEEE 39th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS’19). IEEE, 1317–1326.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [20] . 2022. IPFS and friends: A qualitative comparison of next generation peer-to-peer data networks. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 24, 1 (2022), 31–52.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [21] . 2019. Analysis of the Bitcoin UTXO set. In International Workshops on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC’18). Springer, 78–91.Google Scholar
- [22] . 2020. A fair protocol for data trading based on Bitcoin transactions. Fut. Gen. Comput. Syst. 107 (2020), 832–840.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [23] . 2020. Data management mechanisms for IoT: Architecture, challenges and solutions. In 5th International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies (SpliTech’20). IEEE, 1–6.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [24] . 2017. Towards an optimized blockchain for IoT. In IEEE/ACM 2nd International Conference on Internet-of-Things Design and Implementation (IoTDI’17). IEEE, 173–178.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [25] . 2019. MOF-BC: A memory optimized and flexible blockchain for large scale networks. Fut. Gen. Comput. Syst. 92 (2019), 357–373.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [26] . 2017. Blockchain for IoT security and privacy: The case study of a smart home. In IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops’17). IEEE, 618–623.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [27] . 2019. Erasing data from blockchain nodes. In IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW’19). IEEE, 367–376.Google Scholar
- [28] . 2018. Analysis of difficulty control in Bitcoin and proof-of-work blockchains. In IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC’18). IEEE, 5988–5992.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [29] . 2021. Blockchain for edge of things: Applications, opportunities, and challenges. IEEE Internet Things J. 9, 2 (2021), 964–988.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [30] Karan Singh Garewal. 2020. Cryptocurrency Transaction Processing. Apress, Berkeley, CA, 113–136. Google ScholarCross Ref
- [31] . 2020. Analysis of the cryptographic tools for blockchain and Bitcoin. Mathematics 8, 1 (2020), 131.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [32] . 2018. A survey on Bitcoin cryptocurrency and its mining. In 26th International Conference on Systems Engineering (ICSEng’18). IEEE, 1–6.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [33] . 2014. Thai perception on Litecoin value. Int. J. Soc., Behav., Educ., Econ., Busin. Industr. Eng. 8, 8 (2014), 2613–5.Google Scholar
- [34] . 2021. RSA and redactable blockchains. Int. J. Comput. Math.: Comput. Syst. Theor. 6, 1 (2021), 1–6.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [35] . 2015. Seasonality and interconnectivity within cryptocurrencies—An analysis on the basis of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Namecoin. In 7th International Workshop on Enterprise Applications and Services in the Finance Industry (FinanceCom’14). Springer, 106–120.Google Scholar
- [36] . 2020. Scaling blockchains: A comprehensive survey. IEEE Access 8 (2020), 125244–125262.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [37] . 2021. GDPR compliant blockchains—A systematic literature review. IEEE Access 9 (2021), 50593–50606.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [38] . 2010. Data deduplication techniques. In International Conference on Future Information Technology and Management Engineering, Vol. 1. IEEE, 430–433.Google Scholar
- [39] . 2022. Multi-level distributed caching on the blockchain for storage optimisation. In IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC’22). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [40] . 2022. Blockchain storage optimisation with multi-level distributed caching. IEEE Trans. Netw. Serv. Manag. 19, 4 (2022), 3724–3736.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [41] . 2021. A survey of state-of-the-art on blockchains: Theories, modelings, and tools. ACM Comput. Surv. 54, 2 (2021), 1–42.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [42] . 2021. Scalable and redactable blockchain with update and anonymity. Inf. Sci. 546 (2021), 25–41.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [43] . 2017. Evolution of Bitcoin and security risk in Bitcoin wallets. In International Conference on Computer, Communications and Electronics (Comptelix’17). IEEE, 172–177.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [44] . 2019. Implementation of distributed file storage and access framework using IPFS and blockchain. In 5th International Conference on Image Information Processing (ICIIP’19). IEEE, 246–251.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [45] . 2017. Proof of vote: A high-performance consensus protocol based on vote mechanism & consortium blockchain. In IEEE 19th International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications; IEEE 15th International Conference on Smart City; IEEE 3rd International Conference on Data Science and Systems (HPCC/SmartCity/DSS’17). IEEE, 466–473.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [46] . 2021. Merkle tree: A fundamental component of blockchains. In International Conference on Electronic Information Engineering and Computer Science (EIECS’21). IEEE, 556–561.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [47] . 2022. Deciphering Bitcoin blockchain data by cohort analysis. Scient. Data 9, 1 (2022), 136.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [48] . 2021. A reliable data compression scheme in sensor-cloud systems based on edge computing. IEEE Access 9 (2021), 49007–49015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [49] . 2013. Data management for internet of things: Challenges, approaches and opportunities. In IEEE International Conference on Green Computing and Communications and IEEE Internet of Things and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing. IEEE, 1144–1151.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [50] . 2018. ProductChain: Scalable blockchain framework to support provenance in supply chains. In IEEE 17th International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA’18). IEEE, 1–10.Google Scholar
- [51] . 2014. A study on data deduplication techniques for optimized storage. In 6th International Conference on Advanced Computing (ICoAC’14). IEEE, 161–166.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [52] . 2018. Thwarting unwanted blockchain content insertion. In IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E’18). IEEE, 364–370.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [53] . 2018. A quantitative analysis of the impact of arbitrary blockchain content on Bitcoin. In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security. Springer, 420–438.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [54] . 2020. How to securely prune Bitcoin’s blockchain. In IFIP Networking Conference (Networking’20). IEEE, 298–306.Google Scholar
- [55] . 2017. A review on consensus algorithm of blockchain. In IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC’17). IEEE, 2567–2572.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [56] . 2009. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Retrieved from https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paperGoogle Scholar
- [57] . 2022. Scalable blockchains—A systematic review. Fut. Gen. Comput. Syst. 126 (2022), 136–162.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [58] . 2009. Energy efficient sensor data logging with amnesic flash storage. In International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks. IEEE, 157–168.Google Scholar
- [59] . 2021. Dissecting Bitcoin blockchain: Empirical analysis of Bitcoin network (2009–2020). J. Netw. Comput. Applic. 177 (2021), 102940.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [60] . 2021. On-chain IoT data modification in blockchains. arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.10756 (2021).Google Scholar
- [61] . 2018. Split-scale: Scaling Bitcoin by partitioning the UTXO space. In IEEE 9th International Conference on Software Engineering and Service Science (ICSESS’18). IEEE, 41–45.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [62] . 2017. Enhancing Bitcoin transactions with covenants. In International Workshops on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC’17). Springer, 191–198.Google Scholar
- [63] . 2019. Secure P2P intelligent network transaction using Litecoin. Mob. Netw. Applic. 24 (2019), 318–326.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [64] . 2018. A comparative analysis of DAG-based blockchain architectures. In 12th International Conference on Open Source Systems and Technologies (ICOSST’18). IEEE, 27–34.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [65] Andrew Poelstra. 2016. Mimblewimble. White paper (2016). https://download.wpsoftware.net/bitcoin/wizardry/mimblewimble.pdfGoogle Scholar
- [66] . 2019. Blockchain mutability: Challenges and proposed solutions. IEEE Trans. Emerg. Topics Comput. 9, 4 (2019), 1972–1986.Google Scholar
- [67] . 2017. \(\mu\)chain: How to forget without hard forks. IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive 2017/106 (2017).Google Scholar
- [68] . 2019. Blockchain of finite-lifetime blocks with applications to edge-based IoT. IEEE Internet Things J. 7, 3 (2019), 2102–2116.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [69] . 2019. SDPP: Streaming data payment protocol for data economy. In IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC’19). IEEE, 17–18.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [70] . 2018. Blockchain for the IoT: Opportunities and challenges. arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.02818 (2018).Google Scholar
- [71] . 2021. Blockchain in supply chain: Opportunities and design considerations. arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.12032 (2021).Google Scholar
- [72] . 2018. Towards a decentralized data marketplace for smart cities. In IEEE International Smart Cities Conference (ISC2’18). 1–8.
DOI: Google ScholarCross Ref - [73] . 2021. Comparative study on various storage optimization techniques in IoT-cloud ecosystem. In International Conference on Advance Computing and Innovative Technologies in Engineering (ICACITE’21). IEEE, 659–663.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [74] . 2014. The CIA strikes back: Redefining confidentiality, integrity and availability in security. J. Inf. Syst. Secur. 10, 3 (2014).Google Scholar
- [75] . 2019. Does regulation of illegal content need reconsideration in light of blockchains? Int. J. Law Inf. Technol. 27, 3 (2019), 292–305.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [76] . 2018. Blockchain and privacy protection in the case of the European general data protection regulation (GDPR): A delphi study. J. Brit. Blockchain Assoc. 1, 1 (2018).Google Scholar
- [77] . 2020. Blockchain technology for cloud storage: A systematic literature review. ACM Comput. Surv. 53, 4 (2020), 1–32.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [78] . 2020. IOTA tangle: A cryptocurrency to communicate internet-of-things data. Fut. Gen. Comput. Syst. 112 (2020), 307–319.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [79] . 2015. Secure and optimized data storage for IoT through cloud framework. In International Conference on Computing, Communication & Automation. IEEE, 720–723.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [80] . 2020. Law versus technology: Blockchain, GDPR, and tough tradeoffs. Comput. Law Secur. Rev. 38 (2020), 105454.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [81] . 2018. Ethereum: State of knowledge and research perspectives. In 10th International Symposium on Foundations and Practice of Security (FPS’17). Springer, 206–221.Google Scholar
- [82] . 2016. Swap, Swear, and Swindle: Incentive System for Swarm. Technical Report, Ethersphere Orange Papers 1 (2016).Google Scholar
- [83] . 2016. Bitcoin and beyond: A technical survey on decentralized digital currencies. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 18, 3 (2016), 2084–2123.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [84] . 2019. Revamp perception of Bitcoin using cognizant merkle. In Emerging Research in Computing, Information, Communication and Applications Conference (ERCICA’18). Springer, 141–150.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [85] David Vorick and Luke Champine. 2014. Sia: Simple Decentralized Storage. Retrieved May 8, 2014. https://sia.tech/sia.pdfGoogle Scholar
- [86] . 2016. The quest for scalable blockchain fabric: Proof-of-work vs. BFT replication. In International Workshop on Open Problems in Network Security (iNetSec’15). Springer, 112–125.Google Scholar
- [87] . 2021. ESS: An efficient storage scheme for improving the scalability of Bitcoin network. IEEE Trans. Netw. Serv. Manag. 19, 2 (2021), 1191–1202.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [88] Shawn Wilkinson, Tome Boshevski, Josh Brandoff, and Vitalik Buterin. 2014. Storj a peer-to-peer cloud storage network. White Paper. https://www.storj.io/storj2014.pdfGoogle Scholar
- [89] Gavin Wood. 2014. Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum Project Yellow Paper 151, 2014 (2014), 1–32.Google Scholar
- [90] . 2019. A survey on the scalability of blockchain systems. IEEE Netw. 33, 5 (2019), 166–173.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [91] . 2019. BlendSM-DDM: Blockchain-enabled secure microservices for decentralized data marketplaces. In IEEE International Smart Cities Conference (ISC2’19). IEEE, 14–17.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [92] . 2018. CUB, a consensus unit-based storage scheme for blockchain system. In IEEE 34th International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE’18). IEEE, 173–184.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [93] . 2023. Integration of blockchain and edge computing in internet of things: A survey. Fut. Gen. Comput. Syst. 144 (2023), 307–326.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [94] . 2019. Integrated blockchain and edge computing systems: A survey, some research issues and challenges. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 21, 2 (2019), 1508–1532.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [95] . 2023. A survey on redactable blockchain: Challenges and opportunities. IEEE Trans. Netw. Sci. Eng. 10, 3 (2023), 1669–1683. Google ScholarCross Ref
- [96] . 2019. A service-oriented blockchain system with virtualization. Trans. Blockch. Technol. Applic. 1, 1 (2019), 1–10.Google Scholar
- [97] . 2018. Virtualization for distributed ledger technology (vDLT). IEEE Access 6 (2018), 25019–25028.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [98] . 2020. Overview of blockchain consensus mechanism. In 2nd International Conference on Big Data Engineering. 7–12.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [99] . 2021. Exploring the redaction mechanisms of mutable blockchains: A comprehensive survey. Int. J. Intell. Syst. 36, 9 (2021), 5051–5084.Google ScholarDigital Library
- [100] . 2018. An analysis of blockchain-based Bitcoin mining difficulty: Techniques and principles. In Chinese Automation Congress (CAC’18). IEEE, 1184–1189.Google Scholar
- [101] . 2018. An innovative IPFS-based storage model for blockchain. In IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI’18). 704–708.
DOI: Google ScholarCross Ref - [102] . 2020. Solutions to scalability of blockchain: A survey. IEEE Access 8 (2020), 16440–16455.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [103] . 2016. Interactive incontestable signature for transactions confirmation in Bitcoin blockchain. In IEEE 40th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC’16), Vol. 1. IEEE, 443–448.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- Blockchain Data Storage Optimisations: A Comprehensive Survey
Recommendations
Reducing Storage Requirement in Blockchain Networks Using Overlapping Data Distribution
Blockchain – ICBC 2020AbstractBlockchain technology first gained attention via public blockchain platforms like Bitcoin and Etherium. Over the years, researchers have continuously explored the potential of blockchains in a more restricted environment, which in turn has paved ...
A Flexible Instant Payment System Based on Blockchain
Information Security and PrivacyAbstractImproving the throughput of blockchain systems such as Bitcoin and Ethereum has been an important research problem. Off-chain payments are one of the most promising technologies to tackle this challenge. Once a payment channel, however, is ...
Scalable blockchain storage systems: research progress and models
AbstractBlockchain is believed to be able to build trust among multiple parties and improve the operational efficiency of economy and society, which is attributed to its decentralization property. However, the endless growth of Blockchain data keeps ...
Comments