TITLE:
SmartFlow: A Lightweight Protocol for Fine-Grained Sharding and Parallel Smart Contract Execution in High-Performance Blockchain Systems
AUTHORS:
Amena Begum Farha, Abdullah Al-Mamun
KEYWORDS:
Blockchain, Smart Contract, Consensus Protocol, Sharding, Parallelization, High-Performance Computing
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Computer and Communications,
Vol.13 No.10,
October
11,
2025
ABSTRACT: Blockchain technology and smart contracts have gained considerable attention across various industries due to their transformative potential. However, traditional blockchain protocols face significant challenges in high-performance computing (HPC) environments, particularly in terms of resource consumption and energy efficiency. This paper introduces SmartFlow, a novel framework aimed at enhancing blockchain performance in HPC environments. SmartFlow features two core modules: 1) a fine-grained transaction sharding graph mechanism that enables improved concurrent transaction processing, and 2) a parallel smart contract execution system designed to handle complex blockchain transactions efficiently. Both modules are integrated with a lightweight two-phase quorum commit (2PQC) protocol, optimized using a dual-layer parallel execution strategy, which significantly improves the scalability and performance of blockchain systems. The framework is implemented and evaluated in an HPC cluster, demonstrating promising results with up to 7.5× lower latency and 5.8× higher throughput compared to state-of-the-art blockchain protocols.