Solutions to scalability of blockchain: a survey
Open accessAbstract
Blockchain-based decentralized cryptocurrencies have drawn much attention and been widely-deployed in recent years. Bitcoin, the first application of blockchain, achieves great success and promotes more development in this field. However, Bitcoin encounters performance problems of low throughput and high transaction latency. Other cryptocurrencies based on proof-of-work also inherit the flaws, leading to more concerns about the scalability of blockchain. This paper attempts to cover the existing scaling solutions for blockchain and classify them by level. In addition, we make comparisons between different methods and list some potential directions for solving the scalability problem of blockchain.
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Blockchain's peer-to-peer architecture is regarded as a possible solution to problems with a single point of failure and bottleneck.
“The blockchain's peer to peer (P2P) architecture is regarded as a possible solution to problems with a single point of failure and bottleneck [11,12].”
From A survey on the adoption of blockchain in IoT: challenges and solutions (2021) · cites this paper as [11]
The rapid synchronization of new blocks among blockchain nodes in a chain-structured ledger requires a higher amount of bandwidth, which can improve blockchain throughput.
“The rapid synchronization of new blocks among blockchain nodes in a chain-structured ledger requires a higher amount of bandwidth, which can improve blockchain throughput [11,19].”
From A survey on the adoption of blockchain in IoT: challenges and solutions (2021) · cites this paper as [11]
The entire Bitcoin network absorbs considerably more energy than several nations, including Austria and Colombia.
“Zhou et al. [11] reported that the entire Bitcoin network absorbs considerably more energy than several nations, including Austria and Colombia.”
From A survey on the adoption of blockchain in IoT: challenges and solutions (2021) · cites this paper as [11]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
A survey on the adoption of blockchain in IoT: challenges and solutions
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Blockchain for Edge of Things: Applications, Opportunities, and Challenges
Gadekallu, T. R., Pham, Q.-V., Nguyen, D. C., Maddikunta, P. K. R., Deepa, N., Prabadevi, B., Pathirana, P. N., Zhao, J., & Hwang, W.-J. (2022) · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · doi:10.1109/jiot.2021.3119639 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zhou, Q., Huang, H., Zheng, Z., & Bian, J.
- Affiliations
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Venue
- IEEE Access
- Published
- 2020
- Volume
- 8
- Pages
- 16440-16455
- ISSN
- 2169-3536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3000385461
- Cited by
- 689
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 87 · 2024: 143 · 2023: 144 · 2022: 122 · 2021: 117 · 2020: 34 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 98.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- IEEE Access (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Basic Research Program of China (2016YFB1000101)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (61902445, 61722214)
- Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Blockchain Technology in Education and Learning
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Distributed systems and fault tolerance
- Keywords
- blockchain scalability, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, proof-of-work, throughput, transaction latency, scaling solutions, decentralized systems
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