A Retrospective on Estimating Energy Consumption of Blockchain Applications
by Sara TUCCI (CEA)
Friday March, 8 from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Palaiseau, room 1A318 and on https://webconf.imt.fr/frontend/sop-dnu-mgx-eup
Bio
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Sara Tucci Piergiovanni is CEA Fellow, senior researcher, and the head of the LICIA laboratory at CEA LIST, Saclay. In her role as the
laboratory head, she leads a dedicated team focused on blockchain technologies for industrial applications. The laboratory, comprised of
approximately 15 people with backgrounds in formal methods and distributed computing, actively contributes to the analysis and design
of decentralized technologies, including consensus protocols, smart contracts, and inter-blockchain protocols.
As a senior researcher, her contributions span approximately 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, magazines, and
books. Her primary focus has centered on distributed computing and systems, with a notable emphasis on blockchains in recent years.
Abstract
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Blockchains, originating with Bitcoin, validate ledger entries without a central authority, thanks to a consensus protocol. However, the
substantial energy consumption of the Bitcoin consensus protocol has historically hindered blockchain adoption beyond cryptocurrency. New
consensus protocols, employing cost-effective voting rounds, have emerged to address this challenge. Today, numerous blockchain
applications are constructed on these voting-based blockchains, utilizing layered architectures that encompass both the consensus
network and smart contracts. Smart contracts secure interactions among untrusting actors, executing within the blockchain and activating
consensus for network-wide consistency.
Despite the prevalence of such applications, there is a notable absence of comprehensive models and methodologies for assessing their energy
consumption. Existing consumption models for blockchains predominantly focus on public blockchains and cryptocurrencies, often neglecting
network-related consumption and providing insufficient coverage for entire applications, including generic smart contracts. I’ll illustrate
these limitations using a climate data traceability use case from CEA. In conclusion, I will present research directions and perspectives for
assessing the energy consumption of blockchain applications in the future.