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@book{ Florian2022,
title = {Federated Blockchain Systems: A better trade-off between sustainability and decentralization?},
author = {Florian, Martin},
year = {2022},
series = {Weizenbaum Series},
pages = {12},
volume = {26},
address = {Berlin},
publisher = {Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute},
issn = {2748-5587},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.34669/WI.WS/26},
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 it, we introduce the ideas behind federated blockchain systems and discuss their impact on future blockchain systems.},
}