Master Thesis
Security analysis of Neo
NEO is a blockchain that enables the development of digital assets and smart contracts on the Neo network. The Neo network is Proof of Stake (PoS)-based blockchain, in which tokens are used as the fuel of the platform, to pay for computation, and to reward nodes running smart contracts. NEO uses a delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT) consensus mechanism and is claimed to achieve up to 10’000 transactions per second [1].
The goal of this thesis is to analyse the dBFT consensus algorithm, which is based on the PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) algorithm [2]. Through the analysis you will explore the safety and liveness of the protocol. The current protocol fixes security issues that were present in previous version of Neo [3]. In this thesis we would like to assess the soundness the new version and to determine how it fixes the previous vulnerabilities. Experience with distributed consensus protocols is desired, such as from the course on Distributed Algorithms.
References
[2] Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance
[3] Security Analysis on dBFT Protocol of NEO