Sei Giga’s Autobahn: Revolutionizing Blockchain with Multi-Proposer Consensus

Sei
Giga
is
making
strides
in
blockchain
technology
with
its
innovative
Autobahn
consensus
mechanism,
which
utilizes
a
multi-proposer
architecture
to
enhance
network
throughput
significantly.
This
approach
marks
a
departure
from
the
traditional
single-proposer
systems
like
Tendermint,
which,
despite
offering
deterministic
guarantees
and
eliminating
forks,
face
throughput
limitations.

Challenges
with
Traditional
Models

The
Tendermint
consensus
model,
widely
adopted
in
proof-of-stake
(PoS)
blockchains,
follows
a
sequential
process
involving
proposing,
pre-voting,
pre-committing,
and
committing
blocks.
This
single-proposer
design
creates
bottlenecks,
particularly
if
the
proposer
is
offline
or
malicious,
necessitating
a
timeout
and
restart
of
the
consensus
process.
Additionally,
the
tight
coupling
of
data
availability
and
consensus
limits
throughput,
as
each
step
must
be
completed
before
moving
to
the
next.

Autobahn’s
Multi-Proposer
Advantage

Autobahn,
employed
by
Sei
Giga,
circumvents
these
issues
by
allowing
multiple
validators
to
propose
blocks
simultaneously.
This
multi-proposer
architecture
delivers
a
50x
improvement
in
throughput
over
Tendermint
while
preserving
Byzantine
Fault
Tolerance.
The
decoupling
of
data
availability
from
consensus
is
a
key
innovation,
enabling
continuous
and
parallel
data
dissemination.

In
this
model,
validators
maintain
individual ‘lanes’
for
proposing
transactions,
facilitating
asynchronous
execution
and
transaction
ordering
without
waiting
for
global
consensus
on
each
proposal.
The
introduction
of
Proof
of
Availability
(PoA)
allows
consensus
to
proceed
based
on
lightweight
proofs
rather
than
extensive
data
transfers,
thus
optimizing
network
efficiency.

Enhanced
Network
Efficiency

The
Autobahn
protocol
periodically
captures
network
snapshots,
bundling
proposals
from
all
lanes
into
a ‘cut’
proposal.
Validators
vote
on
these
cuts,
enabling
a
single
consensus
decision
to
order
multiple
proposals.
This
method
reduces
communication
overhead
and
accelerates
the
consensus
process
to
just
1.5
roundtrips,
compared
to
Tendermint’s
three.

Decoupling
Benefits

The
decoupling
of
data
availability
from
consensus
offers
several
advantages:
massively
parallel
data
processing,
reduced
communication
overhead,
and
enhanced
censorship
resistance.
Multiple
validators
proposing
transactions
concurrently
prevent
censorship
and
ensure
transactions
have
multiple
paths
to
inclusion.
This
structure
also
supports
asynchronous
data
and
execution
pipelines,
allowing
complex
transactions
to
be
processed
without
hindering
throughput.

Sei
Giga’s
Autobahn
mechanism
represents
a
significant
advancement
in
blockchain
consensus,
offering
a
scalable
solution
that
addresses
traditional
PoS
limitations.
By
shifting
to
a
multi-proposer
architecture,
Sei
Giga
enhances
throughput,
reduces
latency,
and
maintains
robust
security
protocols.

For
further
insights
into
Sei
Giga’s
Autobahn
mechanism,
visit
the

official
Sei
blog.

Image
source:
Shutterstock