Distributed consensus problem

[prawn-cake]

As a subtask of #2.
Before going forward we need to understand how the users will come to a consensus in the distributed p2p network.
All the research can be collected here

[prawn-cake]

To research

• Proof-of-work_system - used by bitcoin, easy to implement
• Proof-of-stake - proposed by ethereum
• Paxos (just listing it here, not worth looking at)
• Raft - used in the db world, worth to check if it can be applied here as well
• Hashgraph - some new thing
• Async BFT protocol - another set of protocols for distributed consensus
• Overview article about latest known blockchain consensus algorithms
• CORFU - Distributed shared log

[prawn-cake]

To read some fundamentals about Byzantine faults and failures (problems of generals attacking Byzantine)

• Good basics about Byzantine faults and failures
• This article adds more blockchain context (but read the previous one first)
• Satoshi Nakamoto's email
• Super helpful video explaining the basics of the bitcoin protocol

Suggested:

• Delegated Proof-Of-Stake
• Proof of Authority

[anstaendig]

• Delegated Proof-Of-Stake

[anstaendig]

Proof of Authority can also be looked at.

[prawn-cake]

Looks good. But all of those new consensus protocols introduce more unknown variables and complications with unknown benefit (biggest systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum still use proof-of-work and only testing other algorithms)
E.g how to elect witnesses in case of DPoS or in case of PoA - potential validators are required to obtain public notary license doesn't sound appealing.

But, given the fact that the project tends to be smart contracts system and not crypto-currency (it doesn't require solving double-spending problem), it should provide append-only capability in distibuted manner.

I started writing RFC document to describe possible architechture of the consensus protocol. And of course I'd like to have some feedback and ready to listen to fresh ideas.