Not ACID, not BASE, but SALT - A Transaction Processing Perspective on Blockchains

Stefan Tai, Jacob Eberhardt, Markus Klems

2017

Abstract

Traditional ACID transactions, typically supported by relational database management systems, emphasize database consistency. BASE provides a model that trades some consistency for availability, and is typically favored by cloud systems and NoSQL data stores. With the increasing popularity of blockchain technology, another alternative to both ACID and BASE is introduced: SALT. In this keynote paper, we present SALT as a model to explain blockchains and their use in application architecture. We take both, a transaction and a transaction processing systems perspective on the SALT model. From a transactions perspective, SALT is about Sequential, Agreed-on, Ledgered, and Tamper-resistant transaction processing. From a systems perspective, SALT is about decentralized transaction processing systems being Symmetric, Admin-free, Ledgered and Time-consensual. We discuss the importance of these dual perspectives, both, when comparing SALT with ACID and BASE, and when engineering blockchain-based applications. We expect the next-generation of decentralized transactional applications to leverage combinations of all three transaction models.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Tai S., Eberhardt J. and Klems M. (2017). Not ACID, not BASE, but SALT - A Transaction Processing Perspective on Blockchains . In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science - Volume 1: CLOSER, ISBN 978-989-758-243-1, pages 755-764. DOI: 10.5220/0006408207550764

in Bibtex Style

@conference{closer17,
author={Stefan Tai and Jacob Eberhardt and Markus Klems},
title={Not ACID, not BASE, but SALT - A Transaction Processing Perspective on Blockchains},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science - Volume 1: CLOSER,},
year={2017},
pages={755-764},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006408207550764},
isbn={978-989-758-243-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science - Volume 1: CLOSER,
TI - Not ACID, not BASE, but SALT - A Transaction Processing Perspective on Blockchains
SN - 978-989-758-243-1
AU - Tai S.
AU - Eberhardt J.
AU - Klems M.
PY - 2017
SP - 755
EP - 764
DO - 10.5220/0006408207550764