Federated Blockchain Systems: A better trade-off between sustainability and decentralization?

Abstract: Blockchain-based systems are enjoying unbroken popularity. Different economic and social actors are investigating their application for fostering decentralization and separation of power. Whether a blockchain-based system can live up to such goals is heavily determined by the choice of a consensus protocol - the rules by which participants agree on what gets added to the blockchain. Bitcoin’s consensus protocol is inherently decentralization-enabling, at a notoriously high ecological cost. So-called permissioned protocols, while incomparably more efficient, are dismissed as being closed-off and "centralized". Federated blockchain systems represent a middle ground between these two extremes and promise to offer openness and security without sacrificing ecological sustainability. As a rough approximation, their approach can be described as bootstrapping consensus from a web of trust. In this overview article, after a short review of the Bitcoin approach and possible alternatives to i

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource, 12 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Erstveröffentlichung ; begutachtet

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Weizenbaum Series ; Bd. 26

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (who): SSOAR, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften e.V.
• (when): 2022
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Berlin
• (who): Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute
• (when): 2022
• Creator: Florian, Martin
• Contributor: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute

Further information

• DOI: 10.34669/WI.WS/26
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2023052314551224408676
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:57 AM CEST