---
OA_place: repository
OA_type: green
_id: '21042'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "Many blockchains such as Ethereum execute all incoming transactions sequentially
    significantly limiting the potential throughput. A common approach to scale execution
    is parallel execution engines that fully utilize modern multi-core architectures.
    Parallel execution is then either done optimistically, by executing transactions
    in parallel and detecting conflicts on the fly, or guided, by requiring exhaustive
    client transaction hints and scheduling transactions accordingly.\r\n\r\nHowever,
    recent studies have shown that the performance of parallel execution engines depends
    on the nature of the underlying workload. In fact, in some cases, only a 60% speed-up
    compared to sequential execution could be obtained. This is the case, as transactions
    that access the same resources must be executed sequentially. For example, if
    10% of the transactions in a block access the same resource, the execution cannot
    meaningfully scale beyond 10 cores. Therefore, a single popular application can
    bottleneck the execution and limit the potential throughput.\r\n\r\nIn this paper,
    we introduce Anthemius, a block construction algorithm that optimizes parallel
    transaction execution throughput. We evaluate Anthemius exhaustively under a range
    of workloads, and show that Anthemius enables the underlying parallel execution
    engine to process over twice as many transactions."
acknowledgement: This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) SFB project
  SpyCoDe F8502 and the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) project SCALE2 CT22-045.
alternative_title:
- LNCS
article_processing_charge: No
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Ray
  full_name: Neiheiser, Ray
  id: f09651b9-fec0-11ec-b5d8-934aff0e52a4
  last_name: Neiheiser
  orcid: 0000-0001-7227-8309
- first_name: Eleftherios
  full_name: Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios
  id: f5983044-d7ef-11ea-ac6d-fd1430a26d30
  last_name: Kokoris Kogias
  orcid: 0000-0002-8827-3382
citation:
  ama: 'Neiheiser R, Kokoris Kogias E. Anthemius: Efficient and modular block assembly
    for concurrent execution. In: <i>29th International Conference on Financial Cryptography
    and Data Security</i>. Vol 15751. Springer Nature; 2026:307-323. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18">10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18</a>'
  apa: 'Neiheiser, R., &#38; Kokoris Kogias, E. (2026). Anthemius: Efficient and modular
    block assembly for concurrent execution. In <i>29th International Conference on
    Financial Cryptography and Data Security</i> (Vol. 15751, pp. 307–323). Miyakojima,
    Japan: Springer Nature. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18</a>'
  chicago: 'Neiheiser, Ray, and Eleftherios Kokoris Kogias. “Anthemius: Efficient
    and Modular Block Assembly for Concurrent Execution.” In <i>29th International
    Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security</i>, 15751:307–23. Springer
    Nature, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18</a>.'
  ieee: 'R. Neiheiser and E. Kokoris Kogias, “Anthemius: Efficient and modular block
    assembly for concurrent execution,” in <i>29th International Conference on Financial
    Cryptography and Data Security</i>, Miyakojima, Japan, 2026, vol. 15751, pp. 307–323.'
  ista: 'Neiheiser R, Kokoris Kogias E. 2026. Anthemius: Efficient and modular block
    assembly for concurrent execution. 29th International Conference on Financial
    Cryptography and Data Security. FC: Financial Cryptography and Data Security,
    LNCS, vol. 15751, 307–323.'
  mla: 'Neiheiser, Ray, and Eleftherios Kokoris Kogias. “Anthemius: Efficient and Modular
    Block Assembly for Concurrent Execution.” <i>29th International Conference on
    Financial Cryptography and Data Security</i>, vol. 15751, Springer Nature, 2026,
    pp. 307–23, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18">10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18</a>.'
  short: R. Neiheiser, E. Kokoris Kogias, in:, 29th International Conference on Financial
    Cryptography and Data Security, Springer Nature, 2026, pp. 307–323.
conference:
  end_date: 2025-04-18
  location: Miyakojima, Japan
  name: 'FC: Financial Cryptography and Data Security'
  start_date: 2025-04-14
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2026-01-25T23:01:40Z
date_published: 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-02-12T13:39:07Z
day: '01'
department:
- _id: KrPi
doi: 10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_18
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2502.10074'
intvolume: '     15751'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.10074
month: '01'
oa: 1
oa_version: Preprint
page: 307-323
project:
- _id: 34a1b658-11ca-11ed-8bc3-c75229f0241e
  grant_number: F8502
  name: Interface Theory for Security and Privacy
- _id: 7bdd2f70-9f16-11ee-852c-b7950bc6d277
  grant_number: ICT22-045
  name: SeCure, privAte, and interoperabLe layEr 2
publication: 29th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1611-3349
  isbn:
  - '9783032070234'
  issn:
  - 0302-9743
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: 'Anthemius: Efficient and modular block assembly for concurrent execution'
type: conference
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 15751
year: '2026'
...
---
OA_place: repository
OA_type: green
_id: '21044'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 'Scalability is a crucial requirement for modern large-scale systems, enabling
    elasticity and ensuring responsiveness under varying load. While cloud systems
    have achieved scalable architectures, blockchain systems remain constrained by
    the need to over-provision validator machines to handle peak load. This leads
    to resource inefficiency, poor cost scaling, and limits on performance. To address
    these challenges, we introduce Pilotfish, the first scale-out transaction execution
    engine for blockchains. Pilotfish enables validators to scale horizontally by
    distributing transaction execution across multiple worker machines, allowing elasticity
    without compromising consistency or determinism. It integrates seamlessly with
    the lazy blockchain architecture, completing the missing piece of execution elasticity.
    To achieve this, Pilotfish tackles several key challenges: ensuring scalable and
    strongly consistent distributed transactions, handling partial crash recovery
    with lightweight replication, and maintaining concurrency with a novel versioned-queue
    scheduling algorithm. Our evaluation shows that Pilotfish scales linearly up to
    at least eight workers per validator for compute-bound workloads, while maintaining
    low latency. By solving scalable execution, Pilotfish brings blockchains closer
    to achieving end-to-end elasticity, unlocking new possibilities for efficient
    and adaptable blockchain systems.'
alternative_title:
- LNCS
article_processing_charge: No
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Quentin
  full_name: Kniep, Quentin
  last_name: Kniep
- first_name: Eleftherios
  full_name: Kokoris Kogias, Eleftherios
  id: f5983044-d7ef-11ea-ac6d-fd1430a26d30
  last_name: Kokoris Kogias
  orcid: 0000-0002-8827-3382
- first_name: Alberto
  full_name: Sonnino, Alberto
  last_name: Sonnino
- first_name: Igor
  full_name: Zablotchi, Igor
  last_name: Zablotchi
- first_name: Nuda
  full_name: Zhang, Nuda
  last_name: Zhang
citation:
  ama: 'Kniep Q, Kokoris Kogias E, Sonnino A, Zablotchi I, Zhang N. Pilotfish: Distributed
    execution for scalable blockchains. In: <i>29th International Conference on Financial
    Cryptography and Data Security</i>. Vol 15751. Springer Nature; 2026:287-306.
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17">10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17</a>'
  apa: 'Kniep, Q., Kokoris Kogias, E., Sonnino, A., Zablotchi, I., &#38; Zhang, N.
    (2026). Pilotfish: Distributed execution for scalable blockchains. In <i>29th
    International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security</i> (Vol.
    15751, pp. 287–306). Miyakojima, Japan: Springer Nature. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17</a>'
  chicago: 'Kniep, Quentin, Eleftherios Kokoris Kogias, Alberto Sonnino, Igor Zablotchi,
    and Nuda Zhang. “Pilotfish: Distributed Execution for Scalable Blockchains.” In
    <i>29th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security</i>,
    15751:287–306. Springer Nature, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17</a>.'
  ieee: 'Q. Kniep, E. Kokoris Kogias, A. Sonnino, I. Zablotchi, and N. Zhang, “Pilotfish:
    Distributed execution for scalable blockchains,” in <i>29th International Conference
    on Financial Cryptography and Data Security</i>, Miyakojima, Japan, 2026, vol.
    15751, pp. 287–306.'
  ista: 'Kniep Q, Kokoris Kogias E, Sonnino A, Zablotchi I, Zhang N. 2026. Pilotfish:
    Distributed execution for scalable blockchains. 29th International Conference
    on Financial Cryptography and Data Security. FC: Financial Cryptography and Data
    Security, LNCS, vol. 15751, 287–306.'
  mla: 'Kniep, Quentin, et al. “Pilotfish: Distributed Execution for Scalable Blockchains.”
    <i>29th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security</i>,
    vol. 15751, Springer Nature, 2026, pp. 287–306, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17">10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17</a>.'
  short: Q. Kniep, E. Kokoris Kogias, A. Sonnino, I. Zablotchi, N. Zhang, in:, 29th
    International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Springer
    Nature, 2026, pp. 287–306.
conference:
  end_date: 2025-04-18
  location: Miyakojima, Japan
  name: 'FC: Financial Cryptography and Data Security'
  start_date: 2025-04-14
date_created: 2026-01-25T23:01:41Z
date_published: 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-02-16T07:56:09Z
day: '01'
doi: 10.1007/978-3-032-07024-1_17
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2401.16292'
intvolume: '     15751'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2401.16292
month: '01'
oa: 1
oa_version: Preprint
page: 287-306
publication: 29th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1611-3349
  isbn:
  - '9783032070234'
  issn:
  - 0302-9743
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: 'Pilotfish: Distributed execution for scalable blockchains'
type: conference
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 15751
year: '2026'
...