u.today
Charles Hoskinson, founder of the blockchain platform Cardano, has focused the community’s attention on an important update: the Ouroboros Genesis design. Hoskinson created excitement about the update with an interesting Gif that seems to portray users’ impatience to welcome Genesis.
Genesis's evolution over time
Ouroboros Genesis builds upon the foundation laid by previous iterations of the Ouroboros protocol. It introduces enhancements aimed at protecting network nodes, particularly those that are new or returning after an absence. The goal is to strengthen Cardano's resilience and scalability.
All blockchains have a consensus protocol, which ensures the consistency and immutability of the distributed ledger across network nodes. Ouroboros Classic served as the initial proof-of-stake protocol, followed by Ouroboros BFT, then Ouroboros Praos.
Now, Ouroboros Genesis represents the next phase in this evolution, addressing key challenges faced by network nodes, particularly during the initial synchronization process or after prolonged periods of absence.
Key features of Ouroboros Genesis
The Ouroboros Genesis update introduces several new concepts and mechanisms to enhance the security and reliability of the Cardano blockchain. Some of these include Ledger Peers, Lightweight Checkpointing, Limit on Eagerness (LoE), Genesis Density Disconnection (GDD), Limit on Patience (LoP) and Genesis State Machine.
The Ledger Peers are crucial in preventing eclipses, a potential threat to syncing nodes. The function is to reduce the probability of selecting malicious nodes, thereby enhancing network security. Lightweight Checkpointing activates when there is a severe network outage.
Limit on Eagerness ensures that nodes only select blocks that all ledger peers agree on. This prevents syncing nodes from committing to malicious blocks. A Genesis node employs GDD to disconnect from peers serving alternative chains to maintain network integrity and prevent nodes from committing to adversarial chains.
Cardano is long known as a major development hub. The Ouroboros update is one of the many recent attempts the protocol is exploring to outrank Ethereum and other competing blockchains.