Comparative analysis of PoS and PoA consensus in Ethereum environment for blockchain based academic transcript systems

Abstract

Many educational institutions worldwide now use blockchain to verify electronic document, often relying on Ethereum 1.0, which uses proof of work (PoW) or proof of authority (PoA). However, Ethereum 2.0, launched in 2022 by Ethereum Foundation operates on proof of stake (PoS). This study provides comparative analysis of PoS and PoA consensus in Ethereum environment specifically focusing on performance and scalability in the context of academic transcript databases. To demonstrate this, a student academic reputation information system was developed using two different blockchain technologies: Ethereum 1.0 with PoA and Ethereum 2.0 with PoS. This setup was used to obtain comparative analysis data for the two blockchain systems by measuring the throughput and latency. We observed how these platforms responded to an increasing number and frequency of transactions with Hyperledger Caliper. Results indicates that in performance testing, both consensus mechanisms exhibited. Scalability tests revealed that both consensus mechanisms experienced increased latency with higher loads. However, PoA system was superior in average throughput and latency than PoS system except in high transaction of data addition. The experiment result show that PoA system better than PoS system in context of academic transcript databases, making it more suitable to be implemented on that context.