This book systematically studies blockchain adaptability and scalability, combining theoretical analysis with practical implementation. The book provides a comprehensive exploration of blockchain adaptability and scalability solutions through six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces blockchain overviews and current scalability challenges, emphasizing the need for adaptive and scalable blockchains. Chapter 2 systematically reviews consensus protocols, from classical BFT to modern PoW, PoS, and sharding approaches, setting the theoretical foundation for subsequent chapters. Chapter 3 presents AdaptPoW, which enhances PoW blockchain adaptability and scalability through dynamic structure adjustment and efficient transaction processing. Chapter 4 presents AdaptPoS, a PoS-based system with role decoupling and filter mechanism, enabling dynamic throughput adjustment while maintaining security. Chapter 5 describes AdaptShard for sharding-based blockchains, including its transaction allocation and optimistic processing strategy for cross-shard transactions. Chapter 6 concludes with insights and future research directions.

Autorentext

Dr. Jie Xu is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong. She received her B.Eng. degree in Information Security and B.A. degree in Communication from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2017, M.Eng. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from USTC in 2020, and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from City University of Hong Kong in 2024. She received multiple awards, including the CityU Presidential Ph.D. Scholarship, Best Paper Runner-Up Award at IEEE MASS 2018, and National Scholarship of China. Her research interests include distributed consensus and blockchains, trustworthy artificial intelligence, data privacy, and cybersecurity. Her work has appeared in journals and conferences, including IEEE TPDS, IEEE TIFS, ACM Computing Surveys, and ICDCS. She serves as a reviewer for several journals, including ACM Computing Surveys, IEEE Transactions on Computers, and IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing.

Prof. Xiaohua Jia is an IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Member. He is currently a Chair Professor of the Department of Computer Science at City University of Hong Kong and Director of the Center of Decentralized Trust Computing (CDTC). He received his BSc and MSc in Computer Science from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1984 and 1986, respectively, and his DSc degree in Information Science from the University of Tokyo in 1991. His research interests include distributed systems, data privacy and security, and cloud computing. He serves as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Computers, Journal of Networks, and World Wide Web: Internet and Web Information Systems. He has served as the General Chair for conferences including IEEE ICDCS 2023, ACM ICN 2019, and ACM MobiHoc 2008.