Master Thesis
Solana Consensus Protocol
Multiple deployed permissionless blockchains today are based on consensus protocols such as proof-of-work (Bitcoin) or proof-of-stake (Ethereum, Cardano, Algorand). The former is based on the idea of solving computationally hard problems in order to publish a block with transactions, while the latter is based on the idea of “stake”, which denotes either the total wealth (amount of coins/tokens) that a participant holds or an amount of wealth that a participant invests into keeping the platform secure by voting with it in the consensus protocol.
Solana [1] introduces a new blockchain architecture based on Proof of History (PoH) - a proof for verifying order and passage of time between events. When used together with proof-of-work or proof-of-stake, PoH can reduce messaging overhead in a Byzantine Fault Tolerant replicated state machine.
The goal of this thesis is to better formalize the protocol described in the white paper [1] by inspecting the available source code [2]. This should lead to an improved insight, (under which conditions it performs better than already existing consensus protocol, which attacks can be prevented and potential pitfalls).
References
[1] Solana