Blockchain performance has historically faced challenges posed by the throughput limitations of consensus algorithms. Recent breakthroughs in research have successfully alleviated these constraints by introducing a modular architecture that decouples consensus from execution. The move toward independent optimization of the consensus layer has shifted attention to the execution layer. While concurrent transaction execution is a promising solution for increasing throughput, practical challenges persist. Its effectiveness varies based on the workloads, and the associated increased hardware requirements raise concerns about undesirable centralization. This increased requirement results in full nodes and stragglers synchronizing from signed checkpoints, decreasing the trustless nature of blockchain systems. In response to these challenges, this paper introduces Chiron, a system designed to extract execution hints for the acceleration of straggling and full nodes. Notably, Chiron achieves this without compromising the security of the system or introducing overhead on the critical path of consensus. Evaluation results demonstrate a notable speedup of up to 30%, effectively addressing the gap between theoretical research and practical deployment. The quantification of this speedup is achieved through realistic blockchain benchmarks derived from a comprehensive analysis of Ethereum and Solana workloads, constituting an independent contribution.

翻译：区块链性能长期面临共识算法吞吐量限制带来的挑战。近期研究突破通过引入将共识与执行解耦的模块化架构，成功缓解了这些约束。共识层独立优化的趋势将焦点转移至执行层。尽管并发交易执行是提升吞吐量的有效方案，但实际挑战依然存在。其有效性因工作负载而异，且伴随的硬件需求增加引发了中心化风险。这种需求提升导致全节点和落后节点需通过签名检查点同步，削弱了区块链系统的去信任特性。针对这些挑战，本文提出Chiron系统，旨在通过提取执行提示加速落后节点与全节点同步。值得注意的是，Chiron在不损害系统安全性且不引入共识关键路径开销的前提下实现此目标。评估结果表明，该方法实现了最高达30%的显著加速，有效弥合了理论研究与实际部署间的差距。该加速量的量化数据源自对以太坊和Solana工作负载全面分析所得的真实区块链基准测试，这构成了本研究的独立贡献。