Consensus protocol

Consensus protocol

Lither chain implements the QBFT Proof of authority (PoA) consensus protocol. PoA consensus works when participants know each other and there is a level of trust between them. For example, in a permissioned consortium network. PoA consensus protocols have faster block times and a much greater transaction throughput.

PoA consensus method gives a small and designated number of blockchain actors the power to validate transactions or interactions with the network and to update its more or less distributed registry. According to the chosen scheme, one or more validating machines are responsible for generating each new block of transactions that will be included in the Blockchain. The new block can be accepted directly without verification, or by unanimous vote of the block generators, or simply by a majority, depending on the configuration chosen for the Blockchain.

Unlike the proof-of-work mechanism, commonly referred to as “mining”, there is no technical competition between validators here. This consensus mechanism requires almost no computing power, and therefore almost no electricity for its operation.

Since the PoA requires only a limited number of actors, the network can afford to update the blockchain more frequently by reducing the time between each block (blocktime) and process more transactions (blocksize) for processing fees close to zero (Transaction fees).