Many aspects of blockchain-based decentralized finance can be understood as an extension of classical distributed computing. In this paper, we trace the evolution of two interrelated notions: failure and fault-tolerance. In classical distributed computing, a failure to complete a multi-party protocol is typically attributed to hardware malfunctions. A fault-tolerant protocol is one that responds to such failures by rolling the system back to an earlier consistent state. In the presence of Byzantine failures, a failure may be the result of an attack, and a fault-tolerant protocol is one that ensures that attackers will be punished and victims compensated. In modern decentralized finance however, failure to complete a protocol can be considered a legitimate option, not a transgression. A fault-tolerant protocol is one that ensures that the party offering the option cannot renege, and the party purchasing the option provides fair compensation (in the form of a fee) to the offering party. We sketch the evolution of such protocols, starting with two-phase commit, and finishing with timed hashlocked smart contracts.
CITATION STYLE
Engel, D., Herlihy, M., & Xue, Y. (2021). Failure is (literally) an Option: Atomic Commitment vs Optionality in Decentralized Finance. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) (Vol. 13046 LNCS, pp. 66–77). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91081-5_5
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