Analyzing Geospatial Distribution in Blockchains

Abstract: Blockchains are decentralized; are they genuinely? We analyze blockchain decentralization's often-overlooked but quantifiable dimension: geospatial distribution of transaction processing. Blockchains bring with them the potential for geospatially distributed transaction processing. They enable validators from geospatially distant locations to partake in consensus protocols; we refer to them as minority validators. Based on our observations, in practice, most validators are often geographically concentrated in close proximity. Furthermore, we observed that minority validators tend not to meet the performance requirements, often misidentified as crash failures. Consequently, they are subject to punishment by jailing (removal from the validator set) and/or slashing (penalty in native tokens). Our emulations, under controlled conditions, demonstrate the same results, raising serious concerns about the potential for the geospatial centralization of validators. To address this, we developed a solution that easily integrates with consensus protocols, and we demonstrated its effectiveness.