In today's blockchain world, heterogeneous trust has become a research area that has attracted much attention. With the development of technology, more and more blockchain systems are beginning to explore how to use heterogeneous trust to improve their security and efficiency. Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is one of the important promoters in this field, aiming to support the technology and scientific research of the blockchain community by providing resources, promoting cooperation with external researchers, and organizing seminars.
What is heterogeneous trust?
Heterogeneous trust is a concept in a decentralized system that allows participants (such as blockchain validators) to choose which other participants to trust based on their own judgment. Taking the Stellar network as an example, each validator is free to choose which other validators' votes to trust when determining a new block. This flexibility makes heterogeneous trust systems superior to traditional blockchain systems such as Bitcoin and Ethereum in many ways.
In contrast, systems such as Ethereum do not support heterogeneous trust because validators can only follow the decisions of a majority of staked ETH tokens. In Bitcoin, validators must follow the majority of hash power. This makes heterogeneous trust systems more resilient and autonomous in the decision-making process.
Unique advantages
Blockchains based on heterogeneous trust have several key advantages: Capital elasticity: Unlike proof-of-stake (PoS) systems that require capital to be locked, heterogeneous trust systems do not require participants to lock capital, which makes funds more liquid.
Non-monetary incentives: These systems can leverage real-world reputation to create sustainable non-monetary incentives and promote cooperation among participants.
Protect asset issuers: In the event of a blockchain fork, the heterogeneous trust system can protect asset issuers from the risk of double redemption.
These advantages make heterogeneous trust a highly potential research direction in blockchain technology.
Research challenges and opportunities
Despite the huge potential of heterogeneous trust, current research mainly focuses on proof of stake and proof of work, and many scientific questions about heterogeneous trust still need to be answered and raised. Here are some current research challenges:
Consensus Reaching: How to effectively reach consensus in a heterogeneous trust environment is still an unsolved problem.
Integration with PoS: Can heterogeneous trust be used in a proof-of-stake environment? This requires further exploration.
Relationship between mathematical models: The relationship between the different mathematical models proposed and their guarantees has yet to be studied.
Other applications: In addition to consensus protocols, in what other areas can heterogeneous trust be applied?
Adaptability of encryption schemes: How can well-known encryption schemes such as threshold signatures be adapted to heterogeneous settings?
Answers to these questions will help promote research on heterogeneous trust and promote its application in blockchain technology.
Outcomes of the workshop
To promote research on heterogeneous trust, SDF held its first scientific research symposium in Princeton, New Jersey, last October, attracting about 30 researchers. Attendees came from top research universities such as Stanford University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Duke University, University of California, Riverside, Ohio State University, and the University of Bern, as well as presentations from private companies such as Heliax and Akamai who.
During the workshop, participants shared their research results and discussed potential applications and challenges of heterogeneous trust. It is hoped that these exchanged ideas will promote the development of heterogeneous trust, making it a valuable tool for the blockchain community to build safe, efficient and reliable systems.
in conclusion
With the rapid development of blockchain technology, heterogeneous trust as an emerging trust mechanism has gradually received attention. The efforts of the Stellar Development Foundation and the successful holding of the seminar provide a good platform for research in this field. In the days to come, with in-depth research on heterogeneous trust, we have reason to believe that this technology will bring new opportunities for the development of blockchain.
Heterogeneous trust is not only a technological innovation, but also a challenge to the traditional trust model. With more research and practice, future blockchain systems will be more secure, efficient, and better able to serve users and enterprises around the world.