Monadring: A lightweight consensus protocol to offer Validation-as-a-Service to AVS nodes

Abstract

Existing blockchain networks are often large-scale, requiring transactions to be synchronized across the entire network to reach consensus. On-chain computations can be prohibitively expensive, making many CPU-intensive computations infeasible. Inspired by the structure of IBM's token ring networks, we propose a lightweight consensus protocol called Monadring to address these issues. Monadring allows nodes within a large blockchain network to form smaller subnetworks, enabling faster and more cost-effective computations while maintaining the security guarantees of the main blockchain network. To further enhance Monadring's security, we introduce a node rotation mechanism based on Verifiable Random Function (VRF) and blind voting using Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) within the smaller subnetwork. Unlike the common voting-based election of validator nodes, Monadring leverages FHE to conceal voting information, eliminating the advantage of the last mover in the voting process. This paper details the design and implementation of the Monadring protocol and evaluates its performance and feasibility through simulation experiments. Our research contributes to enhancing the practical utility of blockchain technology in large-scale application scenarios.