Performance of Byzantine Fault Tolerant Blockchains

Abstract

Blockchains have garnered significant attention, leading to a proliferation of systems available for adoption. However, choosing the right blockchain for a specific application remains challenging due to a lack of comparative analyses of core metrics such as throughput, latency, and scalability. While several studies have focused on performance evaluation, few address blockchains that are both efficient—avoiding complex Proof-of-Work cryptographic puzzles—and secure, achieving deterministic consensus despite Byzantine failures. This thesis evaluates the performance of three blockchains designed to handle such adversarial behaviors: Burrow, Quorum, and Red Belly Blockchain. For this purpose, we modified the Hyperledger Caliper benchmarking tool by addressing three key limitations: unnecessary overheads, online cryptographic signatures, and centralized clients. Our findings reveal the maximum send rate that Burrow and Quorum can sustain, and demonstrate that Red Belly Blockchain achieves up to 8 times higher throughput than the other blockchains.