conference paper published yes Alfonso De la Rocha author Eleftherios Kokoris Kogias author f5983044-d7ef-11ea-ac6d-fd1430a26d30 Jorge M. Soares author Marko Vukolic author ElKo department ICDCSW: International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshop We present the Filecoin Hierarchical Consensus framework, which aims to overcome the throughput challenges of blockchain consensus by horizontally scaling the network. Unlike traditional sharding designs, based on partitioning the state of the network, our solution centers on the concept of subnets -which are organized hierarchically- and can be spawned on-demand to manage new state. Child sub nets are firewalled from parent subnets, have their own specific policies, and run a different consensus algorithm, increasing the network capacity and enabling new applications. Moreover, they benefit from the security of parent subnets by periodically checkpointing state. In this paper, we introduce the overall system architecture, our detailed designs for cross-net transaction handling, and the open questions that we are still exploring. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2022Bologna, Italy eng 2332-5666 00089598480000910.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018 202245-52 De la Rocha, Alfonso, et al. “Hierarchical Consensus: A Horizontal Scaling Framework for Blockchains.” <i>42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops</i>, vol. 2022, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2022, pp. 45–52, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018">10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018</a>. De la Rocha A, Kokoris Kogias E, Soares JM, Vukolic M. Hierarchical consensus: A horizontal scaling framework for blockchains. In: <i>42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops</i>. Vol 2022. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; 2022:45-52. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018">10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018</a> De la Rocha, A., Kokoris Kogias, E., Soares, J. M., &#38; Vukolic, M. (2022). Hierarchical consensus: A horizontal scaling framework for blockchains. In <i>42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops</i> (Vol. 2022, pp. 45–52). Bologna, Italy: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018">https://doi.org/10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018</a> A. De la Rocha, E. Kokoris Kogias, J. M. Soares, and M. Vukolic, “Hierarchical consensus: A horizontal scaling framework for blockchains,” in <i>42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops</i>, Bologna, Italy, 2022, vol. 2022, pp. 45–52. De la Rocha A, Kokoris Kogias E, Soares JM, Vukolic M. 2022. Hierarchical consensus: A horizontal scaling framework for blockchains. 42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops. ICDCSW: International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshop vol. 2022, 45–52. De la Rocha, Alfonso, Eleftherios Kokoris Kogias, Jorge M. Soares, and Marko Vukolic. “Hierarchical Consensus: A Horizontal Scaling Framework for Blockchains.” In <i>42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops</i>, 2022:45–52. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2022. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018">https://doi.org/10.1109/icdcsw56584.2022.00018</a>. A. De la Rocha, E. Kokoris Kogias, J.M. Soares, M. Vukolic, in:, 42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2022, pp. 45–52. 121602023-01-12T12:09:28Z2023-08-04T09:06:02Z