Design Principles
A superlight chain
A superlight chain can be designed with the primary objective of reducing the overhead associated with maintaining, verifying, and propagating the blockchain, making it quicker and easier for nodes to participate.
- 1.Fast Syncing: Reduces the time it takes for a new node (like a Vimana) to become operational.
- 2.Low Storage Requirements: Helps in retaining more full nodes in the network as the cost of storage would be reduced. This is crucial for decentralization.
- 3.Network Scalability: Lighter chains mean less data to transfer, leading to faster propagation times and reduced chances of network congestion.
- 4.Accessibility: Enables devices with limited resources, such as IoT devices or personal smartphones, to participate as full or near-full nodes.
Even if a chain is superlight, it must retain its integrity and the ability to validate transactions. Here's how:
- 1.Merkle Proofs & State Commitments: Instead of storing every transaction, store only commitments (hashes) and use Merkle proofs to verify individual transactions. This provides a cryptographic assurance that a specific transaction is part of a block without needing the entire block data.
- 2.Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Techniques like zk-SNARKs or zk-STARKs can be used to provide evidence of the truth of a statement without revealing the data behind that statement. This can significantly reduce the size of transaction proofs.
- 3.Checkpoints: Regularly capture the state of the blockchain. New nodes can start from the most recent checkpoint and only validate blocks after that point.
- 4.Pruning: Older transaction data that isn't necessary for current operations can be pruned away, retaining only essential state information.
Consensus approaches
For the Vistara network, a decentralized web of interconnected Vimana spacecores, we require a consensus mechanism that ensures speed, security, and scalability. Tendermint is an option that can be used for its robustness, scalability, and security attributes:
- Scalability: Tendermint can handle a larger number of validators than traditional PBFT, making it more suitable for Vistara's expansive vision.
- Strong Finality: Transactions in Tendermint are finalized quickly and irreversibly, ensuring consistent state across all Vimanas.
- Economic Incentives: Validators in Tendermint are not only chosen based on their stakes but can also be penalized for malicious behavior, ensuring a high degree of network security.
- Modularity: Tendermint's separation of the application and consensus layers offers Vistara the flexibility it needs for future growth and adaptability.
With these attributes, using Tendermint aligns well with Vistara's mission to provide a decentralized, efficient, and trustworthy network for all its participants.
Vimana Consensus Spacecore
The consensus algorithm can reside within a singular spacecore in Vimana. Vimana spacecores are designed in a recursive manner where each spacecore can host other spacecores. Additionally, these can be upgraded or replaced when needed
- 1.Initialization: When a Vimana operator starts their node, the consensus component is initialized, establishing connections with other nodes if necessary.
- 2.Dynamic Loading: a component related to consensus is loaded. If using recursive components, child components are initialized within parent components.
- 3.Network Communication: The consensus component can handle communication with other nodes in the Vistara network, validating transactions, and confirming blocks.
- 4.Upgradability: In the event of a network upgrade or a consensus algorithm change, the consensus component can either be hot-swapped (if designed for such functionality) or require a restart of the Vimana node. Recursive components can allow for parts of the consensus to be upgraded without affecting the whole system.
- 5.Decentralized Operation: As Vistara aims for decentralization, each Vimana's consensus component would work in tandem with others, ensuring no single point of control or failure.
- 6.Auditing and Monitoring: Within the Vimana CLI, operators can monitor the performance of their consensus component, ensuring they are functioning optimally and maintaining network integrity.
KV store systems
DHTs can have a multitude of purposes beyond aiding in consensus. We can have an event-driven model where components can listen for specific keys or patterns in the KV store. When an event occurs, it can trigger a specific action in the component. KV stores can also be used for:
- 1.Configuration Management: Nodes can use the KV store to maintain and update configuration data.
- 2.Service Discovery: Nodes or services can register their existence and capabilities in the KV store, allowing others to discover and communicate with them.
- 3.Load Balancing: The KV store can maintain information about the load or capacity of nodes, helping in the efficient distribution of tasks.
- 4.Caching: For frequently accessed data or to reduce the redundancy of operations, the KV store can act as a cache.
- 5.State Management: The state of various applications or processes can be saved and retrieved from the KV store.
Node management
Adding a new node:
- 1.A permissionless system where any node with enough resources can join the network.
- 2.Nodes need to stake a certain amount of assets as collateral to ensure honest behavior.
- 3.Voting can be based on stake, reputation, or be one-node-one-vote.
- 4.Implement automated metrics to make sure nodes validate correctly.
Handling dishonest behavior:
- 1.A protocol is to be established so existing nodes can vote out a suspected malicious node.
- 2.Malicious nodes can lose their staked assets or slashed as a penalty.
- 3.Nodes can also lose it's reputation that results in reduced influence over the network.
- 4.Nodes should be able to recover from unintentional failures in the system.
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