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Top1. Introduction
A blockchain serves as a distributed and decentralized database, enabling secure data storage and transmission without reliance on a central authority. Each participant autonomously maintains a record of all network activities, ensuring decentralization as a fundamental characteristic (Zhang et al., 2024). This distributed nature safeguards against malicious nodes attempting to manipulate data or alter the blockchain's history. Over recent years, blockchains have gained significant popularity. As the user base and transaction volume continue to grow, active participation in the system becomes increasingly challenging for users with limited resources (Khallel et al., 2023). In a conventional blockchain setup, nodes contribute to the network by validating new blocks and securely storing the entire blockchain. While this distributed storage mechanism effectively protects against data tampering, the widespread adoption of blockchains has raised barriers for users with constrained capabilities to actively engage in the system (Wang et al., 2023).
We are introducing a groundbreaking client known as “low storage,” aimed at overcoming critical challenges in scalability. This innovative approach involves storing only coded fragments of the blockchain, rather than the entire chain. The process involves disassembling original blocks into fixed-size pieces, which are then encoded using linear fragment combinations (Jerbi et al., 2022). This methodology effectively addresses two out of the three major scalability issues: the limited storage space required for the complete blockchain and network congestion caused by an insufficient number of nodes. Upon conducting extensive research into existing storage blockchains, we identified areas for improvement based on a thorough examination of their characteristics and differences. Motivated by these findings, we have developed our own system to enhance the current state of blockchain technology (Zhang et al., 2023).
In a subsequent phase, we present BlockStock—a cutting-edge, smart contract-based solution designed for leasing storage space among blockchain nodes. A distinctive feature of BlockStock is its ability to record all transactions on the blockchain, ensuring transparency. Furthermore, the system incorporates regular and automated audits performed by the entire network, facilitated by recoverability proofs (Pourmajidi et al., 2023). This dual approach not only optimizes storage efficiency but also enhances security and accountability within the blockchain ecosystem (Jerbi et al., 2020).
The paper presents several notable contributions, including:
- 1.
Smart Contract Implementation: Introducing a robust smart contract system wherein each new transaction undergoes validation and execution by the nodes representing the involved actors.
- 2.
Storage Capacity Management: Addressing the challenge of blockchain size expansion by acknowledging the escalating workload associated with storing larger blockchains.
- 3.
Network Load Management: Recognizing the impact of a peer-to-peer network structure on nodes, emphasizing that as the blockchain distribution increases, both the network load and associated fees become more distributed. However, the trade-off is a reduction in the number of nodes holding the complete blockchain, leading to increased network fees for those retaining the entirety of the blockchain.
- 4.
Optimizing Storage Costs: Emphasizing the importance of minimizing bandwidth and computation costs in responding to challenges, with a goal to outperform the expense of downloading the entire file. This approach aims to ensure a high level of certainty regarding the presence of the file on the server.
In summary, the paper offers a comprehensive framework that addresses key aspects such as smart contracts, storage capacity, network load, and storage cost optimization in the context of blockchain technology.
This paper is structured as follows: In Section Two, we delve into related work. Following that, Section Three introduces our BlockStock protocol. Section Four is dedicated to the evaluation and performance analysis of the proposed protocol. Finally, Section Five encapsulates the conclusion and future work.