HashNET Blockchain Consensus for DLT Applications

Our modern world is becoming increasingly reliant on the processing, exchange and storage of information. This trend of so-called "digitalisation" is penetrating every pore of human civilisation, including nature, people, and machines; our economy and production, which must be as local as possible; and our global ecology. The use of information processing technology brings benefits to a wide range of endeavours. In this sense, many computing technologies and techniques must be used to achieve the goal of an integrated global service ecosystem, a Rainbow ecosystem of all hierarchical levels of computing. One of the most important new developments in recent years is the development of blockchain technology. A blockchain can solve many problems of persistent and traceable storage, as well as enable direct coordination, compensation, etc. Therefore, in the Dew-Fog-Cloud hierarchy, blockchain technology is a promising new approach to enable novel applications in a variety of fields, from social and educational to scientific and industrial. However, there are two important points in many implementations of the current blockchain which prevent them from being used for public service solutions. The first is the proof algorithm - the vast majority of proof-of-work algorithms do useless work and waste enormous amounts of energy. The second one is that proof-of-stake algorithm is not suitable for open public infrastructure. The HashNET algorithm, which uses proof-of-authority combined with master nodes to achieve distributed consensus and ensure trust, is explained in detail in this paper. As an example of future applications in science, education and society, we also briefly describe certificate validation and future application for scientific publications.