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LibraryScaling2018Design paperCorpus record

RapidChain: Scaling Blockchain via Full Sharding

RapidChain. Mahdi Zamani, Mahnush Movahedi and Mariana Raykova.

RapidChain shards the ledger completely and uses a committee protocol that tolerates a smaller honest fraction inside a committee than a classical open network.

A reading of the public paper. Not a copy, not a benchmark, and not a claim about any later network.

Ask whether 'full sharding' includes storage of the state the user is trusting. If one archive node holds it all, the word full is doing too much work.
Evidence
Primary paper
Re-measured
No
Assumptions
3
Records linked
0

Code

Source, repository, and what is actually hosted

  • ePrint 2018/460https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/460
  • The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
  • Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
  • Add to a reading list

01 Claim ledger

What the paper is allowed to say

Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.

  1. Claim 01 · Paper model

    The defect

    Partial sharding still makes every node touch the parts that were not sharded. Full sharding is a claim that communication, storage and computation all split.

  2. Claim 02 · Paper model

    The proposal

    RapidChain shards the ledger completely and uses a committee protocol that tolerates a smaller honest fraction inside a committee than a classical open network.

  3. Claim 03 · Paper model

    The honest-fraction claim is per committee, and it depends on how commit

    Cross-shard routing is part of the protocol, not an afterthought.

  4. Claim 04 · Paper model

    The bound

    The percentages in the paper are for its model.

02 Three cuts

Observation, model, falsifier

A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.

  1. 01 The defect

    Observation

    What the study says

    Partial sharding still makes every node touch the parts that were not sharded. Full sharding is a claim that communication, storage and computation all split.

    Model

    What has to hold

    The percentages in the paper are for its model.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is sharded: compute, storage, or only the mempool?

  2. 02 The proposal

    Observation

    What the study says

    RapidChain shards the ledger completely and uses a committee protocol that tolerates a smaller honest fraction inside a committee than a classical open network.

    Model

    What has to hold

    It is not a report on any 2026 network.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    How large is a committee?

  3. 03 The honest-fraction claim is per committee, and it depends on how commit

    Observation

    What the study says

    Cross-shard routing is part of the protocol, not an afterthought.

    Model

    What has to hold

    Committee size is a security parameter. Shrinking it is not free.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    How does a cross-shard payment abort?

  4. 04 The bound

    Observation

    What the study says

    The percentages in the paper are for its model.

    Model

    What has to hold

    The percentages in the paper are for its model.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is sharded: compute, storage, or only the mempool?

03 Sequence

One action, as an operating tape

  1. 01Sample committees.
  2. 02Order transactions inside one committee.
  3. 03Route a cross-shard payment so both committees have to accept it.
  4. 04How large is a committee?

04 Load-bearing

The argument, and where a pitch drops it

  1. What the paper is for

    The cut

    Ask whether 'full sharding' includes storage of the state the user is trusting. If one archive node holds it all, the word full is doing too much work.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.

  2. What happened after

    The cut

    Later production shards rarely match this committee protocol. The question it poses is still the right one.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    Committee size is a security parameter. Shrinking it is not free.

05 Register

What has to be true

  • Model · Not re-measured

    The percentages in the paper are for its model.

  • Network · Not re-measured

    It is not a report on any 2026 network.

  • Model · Not re-measured

    Committee size is a security parameter. Shrinking it is not free.

06 Divergence

What happened after the paper

Later production shards rarely match this committee protocol. The question it poses is still the right one.

A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.

07 Pre-mortem

What to check before you use the idea

  4. 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.

08 Anatomy

The paper, in the order a builder needs

The problem it names

Partial sharding still makes every node touch the parts that were not sharded. Full sharding is a claim that communication, storage and computation all split.

What the design proposes

  • The honest-fraction claim is per committee, and it depends on how committees are sampled.
  • Cross-shard routing is part of the protocol, not an afterthought.
  • A full shard that cannot be verified by an outsider is a smaller trusted ledger.

How the mechanism is specified

  • Sample committees.
  • Order transactions inside one committee.
  • Route a cross-shard payment so both committees have to accept it.

What this page does not treat as proven

  • The percentages in the paper are for its model.
  • It is not a report on any 2026 network.
  • Committee size is a security parameter. Shrinking it is not free.

Why the desk still reads it

Ask whether 'full sharding' includes storage of the state the user is trusting. If one archive node holds it all, the word full is doing too much work.

09 Lexicon

Terms, opened into the record

Full sharding
A split of computation, storage and communication, not only of block production.
Committee
The small set trusted to order one shard.

10 Repository

Every linked record on this page

Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.

No repository match in this text.

This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.

Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.