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：区块链性能历来面临共识算法吞吐量限制带来的挑战。近期研究的突破性进展通过引入模块化架构将共识与执行解耦，成功缓解了这些约束。共识层独立优化的趋势将关注点转移至执行层。尽管并发交易执行是提升吞吐量的一种有前景的解决方案，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关于不良中心化的担忧。这种需求提升导致全节点与落后节点需从签名检查点同步，降低了区块链系统的去信任化特性。针对这些挑战，本文提出了Chiron——一种旨在提取执行提示以加速落后节点与全节点同步的系统。值得注意的是，Chiron在达成此目标时既不损害系统安全性，也不在共识关键路径上引入开销。评估结果显示，该系统实现了高达30%的显著加速，有效缩小了理论研究与实际部署之间的差距。该加速效果的量化数据源自基于以太坊和Solana工作负载全面分析所得的真实区块链基准测试，这本身构成了一项独立贡献。