Authors:
Stefan Tai
;
Jacob Eberhardt
and
Markus Klems
Affiliation:
Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany
Keyword(s):
SALT, Blockchain, Decentralized, ACID, BASE, Transaction Processing.
Abstract:
Traditional ACID transactions, typically supported by relational database management systems, emphasize database consistency. BASE provides a model that trades some consistency for availability, and is typically favored by cloud systems and NoSQL data stores. With the increasing popularity of blockchain technology, another alternative to both ACID and BASE is introduced: SALT. In this keynote paper, we present SALT as a model to explain blockchains and their use in application architecture. We take both, a transaction and a transaction processing systems perspective on the SALT model. From a transactions perspective, SALT is about Sequential, Agreed-on, Ledgered, and Tamper-resistant transaction processing. From a systems perspective, SALT is about decentralized transaction processing systems being Symmetric, Admin-free, Ledgered and Time-consensual. We discuss the importance of these dual perspectives, both, when comparing SALT with ACID and BASE, and when engineering blockchain-bas
ed applications. We expect the next-generation of decentralized transactional applications to leverage combinations of all three transaction models.
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