A Short Description of LotDepot
LotDepot is a permissionless blockchain for a scalable, decentralized, and secure database (DB), in particular suiting an open ledger usecase which must quickly reject any accounting error, e.g., double spending. Its block finding algorithm is by way of noisy drawing lots to select a lucky block from many contenders. Let the lucky block finder record in its lucky block, not only a payload item containing DB entries as all blockchains conventionally do, but also the public-key identities of a lot of not-so-lucky block finders, to name this unconventional item of blockchain data “payroll”. Let only the payroll nodes, i.e., those not-so-lucky block finders, announce accounting correctness validation outcome for DB entries input by the lucky block’s payload item. By controlling the volume of the payroll nodes under a non-spam level, the accounting correctness validation dissemination from the payroll nodes can be in good order to propagate and influence through out the forwarding network. Also because subsequent payroll nodes can never be used up, any correct accounting outcome from them will always enter the DB, in fact very quickly since the payroll nodes work for an incentive. Thus, this unconventional design of blockchain payroll functions as probability amplification for the block extending algorithm which is in fact a randomized probabilistic (RP) algorithm. The work of LotDepot manifests for the first time the so-far having been ignored fact: The decision problem for a public blockchain’s accounting correctness is in the Zero-sided-error Probabilistic Polynomial (ZPP) time class, i.e., a public blockchain should be always fast and always correct. The work of LotDepot makes a knowledge advance for the blockchain consensus layer algorithms status quo, including known slowness with the so-called Proofs-of-Work (PoW) consensus model, and known impossible distributed fungibility between an accounting error and an amount of security deposit to “slash” with the so-called Proofs-of-Stake (PoS) (non-)consensus model.
In addition to improving the permissionless blockchain technology, LotDepot also lines up payroll nodes for an unbound volume of IT resources to organize an open cloud and host general-purpose peer-to-peer applications.
