Why This Matters

Outsourcing computation to distributed resources could enable efficient use of idle computing capacity, but requires mechanisms to verify that results are correct without trusting individual participants. Traditional centralized approaches suffer from single points of failure and may not capture all available computing resources. This work is innovative because it provides a decentralized approach to computation outsourcing using blockchain smart contracts, enabling trustless verification and fair compensation while maintaining computational efficiency.

What We Did

This paper introduces MODiCUM, a blockchain-based distributed ledger system for outsourcing computation with mechanisms to address misbehavior and verify results. The work presents a smart contract-based protocol for job outsourcing that enables verification of computation correctness while keeping verification costs low. The system addresses challenges in decentralized computation by implementing dispute resolution mechanisms and ensuring that resource providers receive payment only for correct results.

Key Results

MODiCUM successfully demonstrates a working decentralized computation marketplace where jobs are posted, matched with resource providers, and results are verified using smart contracts. The system enables efficient verification through random sampling of results and maintains fairness through mechanisms that prevent collusion. Results show that the approach can support computation outsourcing with reasonable efficiency while ensuring that dishonest participants face consequences.

Full Abstract

Cite This Paper

@inproceedings{eisele2020mechanisms,
  author = {Eisele, Scott and Eghtesad, Taha and Troutman, Nicholas and Laszka, Aron and Dubey, Abhishek},
  booktitle = {14TH ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event Based Systems},
  title = {Mechanisms for Outsourcing Computation via a Decentralized Market},
  year = {2020},
  acceptance = {25.5},
  abstract = {As the number of personal computing and IoT devices grows rapidly, so does the amount of computational power that is available at the edge. Since many of these devices are often idle, there is a vast amount of computational power that is currently untapped, and which could be used for outsourcing computation. Existing solutions for harnessing this power, such as volunteer computing (e.g., BOINC), are centralized platforms in which a single organization or company can control participation and pricing. By contrast, an open market of computational resources, where resource owners and resource users trade directly with each other, could lead to greater participation and more competitive pricing. To provide an open market, we introduce MODiCuM, a decentralized system for outsourcing computation. MODiCuM deters participants from misbehaving-which is a key problem in decentralized systems-by resolving disputes via dedicated mediators and by imposing enforceable fines. However, unlike other decentralized outsourcing solutions, MODiCuM minimizes computational overhead since it does not require global trust in mediation results. We provide analytical results proving that MODiCuM can deter misbehavior, and we evaluate the overhead of MODiCuM using experimental results based on an implementation of our platform.},
  category = {selectiveconference},
  contribution = {lead},
  keywords = {blockchain, decentralized computation, smart contracts, job scheduling, distributed ledger, computation verification},
  tag = {platform,decentralization}
}
Quick Info
Year 2020
Keywords
blockchain decentralized computation smart contracts job scheduling distributed ledger computation verification
Research Areas
middleware CPS
Search Tags

Mechanisms, Outsourcing, Computation, Decentralized, Market, blockchain, decentralized computation, smart contracts, job scheduling, distributed ledger, computation verification, middleware, CPS, 2020, Eisele, Eghtesad, Troutman, Laszka, Dubey