Randomizing Forger Selection to Improve Decentralization in Proof of Stake Consensus Protocol

Syed Badruddoja, Sasi Kiran Kanduri, Ram Dantu

2025

Abstract

In proof-of-stake consensus protocols, the inherent design often favors wealthier participants, perpetuating a cycle where the rich become richer, thereby consolidating control over validation and block creation. This dynamic discourages broader participation, as lower-stake nodes are discouraged from contributing to block creation and transaction processing, undermining the fundamental principle of equitable decentralization. This research introduces a hash power-based consensus protocol that provides opportunities to low-stakes validators. We extend an existing work of hash-power-based consensus protocol to increase randomization of validator selection. Moreover, we raise the decentralization factor by extending a ’hash power’ metric, which is calculated from the minted and native stakes of a participant. The proposed consensus algorithm enhances the network’s forgers and validators selection mechanism, raising the entropy of the validator selection to 0.80 and fairness to 0.45, which is a significant improvement to coinage-based validator selection.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Badruddoja S., Kanduri S. and Dantu R. (2025). Randomizing Forger Selection to Improve Decentralization in Proof of Stake Consensus Protocol. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 2: ICISSP; ISBN 978-989-758-735-1, SciTePress, pages 260-267. DOI: 10.5220/0013317200003899

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icissp25,
author={Syed Badruddoja and Sasi Kanduri and Ram Dantu},
title={Randomizing Forger Selection to Improve Decentralization in Proof of Stake Consensus Protocol},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 2: ICISSP},
year={2025},
pages={260-267},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013317200003899},
isbn={978-989-758-735-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 2: ICISSP
TI - Randomizing Forger Selection to Improve Decentralization in Proof of Stake Consensus Protocol
SN - 978-989-758-735-1
AU - Badruddoja S.
AU - Kanduri S.
AU - Dantu R.
PY - 2025
SP - 260
EP - 267
DO - 10.5220/0013317200003899
PB - SciTePress