# BlockEmulator: An Emulator Enabling to Test Blockchain Sharding Protocols

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.03612 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.03612/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 6 Nov 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Spec2Twin-Chain: Orchestrating Bi-Level Optimization with LLMs for Blockchain Digital Twin Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.30050/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Numerous blockchain simulators have been proposed to allow researchers to simulate mainstream blockchains. However, we have not yet found a testbed that lets researchers develop and evaluate new consensus algorithms or protocols for blockchain sharding systems. To fill this gap, we developed BlockEmulator as an experimental platform, particularly for emulating blockchain sharding mechanisms. BlockEmulator adopts a lightweight blockchain architecture so developers can focus only on implementing their new protocols or mechanisms. Using BlockEmulator's layered modules and useful programming interfaces, researchers can implement a new protocol with minimal effort. In two steps, we test BlockEmulator's functionality. First, we prove the correctness of BlockEmulator's emulation results by comparing theoretical analysis with observed experimental results. Second, other experiments show that BlockEmulator can measure a range of metrics, including throughput, transaction confirmation latency, cross-shard transaction ratio, the queuing status of transaction pools, workload distribution across blockchain shards, etc. We have made BlockEmulator open-source on GitHub.