Introduction
If you’re building a blockchain app, chances are you have performance and scalability issues. To make matters worse, there are dozens of consensus mechanisms out there and each one has pros and cons (as do different blockchains). The good news is that as with any other technology, there are best practices for building efficient blockchains which can help solve these problems. Here are 6 ones:
How to make your Blockchain Super-Scalable
You can make your blockchain super-scalable by using horizontal scaling. This involves distributing the workload across multiple machines, so that every node does not have to process every transaction. You can achieve this by splitting up the network into smaller groups of computers and having each group work on its own subset of transactions at any given time.
This method is similar to sharding in databases, which allows them to process more queries than they would if they were designed with only one server or computer running all operations.
One way you might want to go about implementing horizontal scaling is through “permissioned” blockchains–that is, blockchains where only certain parties are allowed access (and therefore must be granted permission) in order for them participate in validating new blocks before adding them onto their copies of consensus ledgers stored locally on different servers around world wide web (WWW).
1. Architect your blockchain to be horizontally scalable, not vertically.
- Architect your blockchain to be horizontally scalable, not vertically.
Horizontal scalability is achieved by adding more nodes to the network; in contrast, vertical scaling requires upgrading existing hardware or software of each node in order for it to handle more load (which can be very expensive). Horizontal scaling is much cheaper and easier to implement than vertical scaling–you just need more computers with enough processing power and memory capacity!
2. Don’t choose an inefficient consensus protocol.
The second thing you should do is avoid choosing an inefficient consensus protocol. A consensus protocol is how nodes in a blockchain reach agreement on the state of the blockchain. There are many different types of consensus protocols, but for most use cases, one will work better than others.
If you’re building a public chain, proof of work (PoW) and proof of stake (PoS) are popular choices. Both have their advantages and disadvantages; PoW tends to be more secure against 51{6f258d09c8f40db517fd593714b0f1e1849617172a4381e4955c3e4e87edc1af} attacks but less efficient because it requires miners to solve cryptographic puzzles in order for them to earn rewards for validating transactions on behalf of users who do not have enough computing power themselves; meanwhile PoS systems require stakeholders who hold coins within their wallets or accounts sign off on proposed transactions before they are added onto blocks which makes them less susceptible to manipulation by large mining pools but also means that there’s no reward system in place so users could just stop participating at any point during their lifetimes without any consequences whatsoever!
3. Keep it simple! Use the simplest and best-known consensus mechanism for your use-case.
The best-known consensus mechanisms are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). These have been tested extensively by the community, and they’re well understood. They also offer the most flexibility when it comes to tweaking parameters like blocktime and difficulty. In addition, there’s a lot of documentation available online that explains how these algorithms work under the hood–and if you ever get stuck with something you can’t figure out, there’s usually someone who can help!
4. Throw more computer power at a problem that needs more processing power for better results (and faster computations).
You can solve this problem by throwing more computer power at it. That’s right, if you want to make your blockchain super-scalable, just use a more efficient algorithm and/or faster processors (and maybe even more processors).
5. Optimize your smart contracts and the way they call on each other by using “thin” contracts wherever possible, i.e., contracts which only contain the logic needed for a given interaction between parties, rather than reusing logic that may be used in many different situations (this also reduces possible errors in coding).
You can optimize your smart contracts and the way they call on each other by using “thin” contracts wherever possible, i.e., contracts which only contain the logic needed for a given interaction between parties, rather than reusing logic that may be used in many different situations (this also reduces possible errors in coding). This will reduce storage overhead of blocks and thus increase privacy as well as reduce latency.
6. Minimize the amount of data you save on the blockchain by keeping redundant information as much as possible off-chain in order to reduce storage overhead of blocks (by reducing transaction sizes), reduce latency (by keeping data online), and increase privacy (by limiting visibility into transactions or data sets).
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Conclusion
This is just a short list of some of the ways that you can optimize your blockchain architecture. There are many other optimizations and best practices out there, but these are some of the most important ones to keep in mind as you build your own blockchain. Good luck!
