Why do we need a consensus mechanism?
Consensus building is a technique for reaching an agreement on a shared state. To ensure that the blockchain’s state continues to grow and progress, all nodes in the network must agree and reach agreement. It is the mechanism through which the nodes of a decentralized network remain in sync with one another. Without consensus for the decentralized network of nodes in a blockchain, there is no way to assure that the state believed to be confirmed by one node is shared by all nodes. Consensus seeks to establish an objective picture of the state among participants, each of whom has their own subjective vision of the network. It is the mechanism through which these nodes interact, reach consensus, and are able to construct new blocks.
The 5ireChain Sustainable proof of stake consensus mechanism is a multi-factor consensus protocol. 5ireChain employs hybrid consensus, which combines Blind Assignment for Blockchain Extension(BABE) and GHOST-based Recursive Ancestor Deriving Prefix Agreement ( (GRANDPA) for block creation and verifiable finality respectively, to enable rapid block generation and increased security. By virtue of our sustainable vision, the 5ire reputation mechanism enables universal and canonical guidance for network and real-world activities, guiding them toward a benefit-oriented paradigm in which appealing to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is highly rewarding for all actors while maintaining faster transaction throughput and higher levels of security and efficiency than any standard Proof-Of-Stake scheme.
Why Sustainable Proof of Stake (SPoS)
In classic proof-of-stake systems, participation in block production is based on token holdings rather than processing capacity. While most PoS developers advocate for decentralized operation with equitable participation, the majority of projects end up offering some kind of centralized operation with a small number of validators with full participation rights. These validators are frequently viewed as the wealthiest and exert influence over the PoS network due to their stake. Typically, the number of candidates with the appropriate expertise (and equipment) to maintain the network is limited; this immediately increases operating expenses. Systems with a high number of validators frequently establish pools to reduce revenue variation and capitalize on economies of scale. Often, these pools are off-chain.
It is possible to reduce this problem by using a Sustainable proof of stake, in which the stake of each node is utilized to pick the delegates, in conjunction with randomised voting.
Using a SPoS consensus mechanism gives us more leeway to efficiently actualize our mandate by speeding up the global blockchain adoption and helping realize UN SDG goals by bringing a shift in paradigms from a for-profit to a for-benefit ecosystem. By embedding sustainability and social impact inside the 5ireChain runtime logic. We ensure that the activities which are aligned with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals are on-chain. Hence we opted to use a one-of-a kind consensus mechanism to achieve these goals. We are not using the nominated proof of stake or delegated proof of stake; instead, we will use the stake of an individual node to select the delegates and actualize randomized voting. We concluded that SPoS could help us avoid cartelization of the network where nodes can select validators of their choice each time.
How Blocks are produced using the BABE mechanism
Blind Assignment for Blockchain Extensions (BABE) is a slot-based system for generating blocks that provides a list of active validators. BABE determines the assignment of slots based on the evaluation of a verified random function. On each slot, all authorities attempt to generate a random instance of the VRF, and a producer of the current block is picked based on a comparison between a threshold proportionate to their stake and the VRF value generated by each authority. Additionally, to ensure democracy, the other participants rely on proof of VRF execution to verify the slot claim. BABE (Blind Assignment for Blockchain Extension) is the block production method that runs between the validator nodes and decides who is the author of new blocks. It is implemented in the Ethereum blockchain. In terms of algorithm, BABE is comparable to Ouroboros Praos, with the exception of a few major variations in the chain selection rule and slot time modifications. BABE provides block production slots to validators according to their stake and the 5ire randomization cycle, among other factors.
Validators in 5ire will be entered into a lottery for each available slot, with the results of the lottery determining whether or not they are the block producer candidate for that slot. Slots are discrete units of time, each of which is nominally 6 seconds long. Because of this process of randomization, numerous validators may be contenders for the same seat at the same time. A slot may be unoccupied at other times, resulting in irregular block time at other periods.
What happens if there are many validators for a slot?
When there are numerous validators who are block producer candidates in a particular slot, all of them will generate a block and broadcast it to the rest of the network. At that moment, it’s a race against the clock. The validator whose block is the first to reach the majority of the network wins. In some cases, depending on the network topology and latency, both chains will continue to grow in some capacity until finalization takes effect and a fork is removed.
When there are no Validators available in a slot
An apparent blockless slot can exist if no validators have rolled low enough in the randomness lottery to qualify for block construction in a given slot. We overcome this by executing a secondary validator selection procedure in the background that is similar to a round-robin type. In all cases, the validators picked to create blocks by this method produce blocks; however, these secondary blocks are disregarded if the same slot also produces the main block from a validator that was selected through the VRF process. Therefore, a slot can have either a primary or a secondary block, and there are no spaces that are skipped.
Summary
We have built the release plan that outlines all the necessary steps to launch the test network. This includes 3 main activities.
1) Pre-release which includes all the preparation for the launch such as the deployment scripts, QA testing and infrastructure set up.
2) Release — this includes the steps needed to deploy and launch the test network. It involves the enlistment of the bootstrap nodes which will act as the “genesis” or “first set of nodes” that will generate the genesis block, and the deployment of the applications such as explorer, wallet and libraries.
3) Post-Release — this will include all the post-production deployment steps to verify the stability of the chain as well as the marketing and business development activities to announce the launch.
Assigning ESG Scores
During our initial design, we have incorporated the ESG scores as having a weight on the consensus selection process and are now closer to having it formalized by incorporating it via a system that will generate realistic ESG scores. In the research paper, we included several key aspects of our innovation, this includes the transaction pool, nested blocks and the weight percentage of the consensus mechanism.
Infrastructure Architecture
The team has been focusing on building the infrastructure that will allow the nodes to be spread out across different regions. We have strategically set multiple kubernetes clusters across the globe to ensure that we are covering all regions that will enable us to launch different sets of nodes that interconnect with our genesis cluster nodes.
Solidity Code Examples
5ireChain supports EVM-based contracts and our team understands the importance of creating a guideline for it. Our technology team has created a few examples on how to run solidity code on 5ireChain.
QA/Chaos Testing
As part of the prerequisites for us to launch. We have planned on creating a test suite that will allow us to ensure that the 5ireChain platform can handle several hundreds to thousands of transactions all at once and measure the actual transaction that it can confirm or finalized per second.
More information about 5ireChain can be found by clicking on the following links:
Website: https://5ire.org
White paper: https://bit.ly/5ireWP
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/5ireChain
Twitter : https://twitter.com/5irechain
Discord : https://discord.gg/h5gY4B6mFY
Telegram : https://t.me/OfficialFireChain
