Maat: Analyzing and Optimizing Overcharge on Blockchain Storage

This conference talk from USENIX FAST '25 presents "Maat," an innovative tool designed to analyze and optimize overcharging issues in blockchain storage systems. Explore how blockchain platforms like Ethereum face inconsistencies between transaction fees and actual storage workload, resulting in users paying more than necessary. Learn about Maat's three key techniques: fine-grained data collection that tracks gas fees at the storage operation level, consensus-oriented optimizations that ensure fee reductions work across all blockchain nodes, and resource pre-allocation that maintains consistency across heterogeneous environments. Discover how extensive evaluations on Ethereum demonstrated a 32% reduction in transaction fees (equivalent to 5.6M USD in weekly savings), with minimal performance overhead of just 1.4% in block processing time. The talk also covers Maat's successful application to Binance Smart Chain, where it achieved a 31% fee reduction worth 1.54M USD weekly, demonstrating the tool's effectiveness across different blockchain platforms.