Proof-of-Authority Consensus Mechanism
Blockchain Consensus
In a centralized system, such as a bank or a broker, a designated authority or central operating system would be in charge of adding transactions or information to the system, making sure that each transaction is trustworthy, up to date with the whole system, and does not duplicate previous transactions.
In contrast, public blockchains are decentralized, peer-to-peer systems that have no central authority or oversight like this. Designated actors are responsible for processing transactions, creating new blocks and maintaining the integrity and history of previous blocks.
The system for determining these actors and how they are selected is called a consensus mechanism. These mechanisms determine the process of who can confirm transactions and create new blocks on the blockchain and the protocol for how they do so. Because there is no central oversight, consensus needs to be designed in a way that prevents or disincentivizes malicious or uninformed actors from corrupting the integrity of the chain.
There are many consensus algorithms. You may have heard of some widely used ones like Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake. Each mechanism has its own way of determining who is eligible to process transactions and create new blocks, and how how actors are selected to do so.
The Energy Web Chain uses the Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism.
All consensus mechanisms have disadvantages and advantages and are chosen based on the purpose and use case of the blockchain it will be serving. You can read more about why Energy Web employs the Proof-of-Authority mechanisms below.
The Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism has a defined set of actors that validate transactions and propagate new blocks to the chain. Rather than competing or staking for a chance to add blocks, they take turns creating new blocks in a round-robin style. These actors are called validators.
Energy Web validators participate by running full nodes of the blockchain using OpenEthereum client software. Smart contracts called Validator-Set contracts have the functionality to add or remove validators. Anyone can run a full node of the blockchain, but only addresses that are included in the Validator-Set contracts can validate transactions and seal blocks. You can read about the Energy Web Chain's Validator Set Contracts here.
The Energy Web Chain uses a specific type of PoA called Authority Roundtable (AuRa). The AuRa Proof-of-Authority consensus mechanism can be used by blockchains that run the OpenEthereum client.
You can read more about the validator process below.
For more in-depth information on Proof-of-Authority, read the Authority Roundtable Proof-of-Authority white paper
Energy Web Chain Validators
In other consensus mechanisms, such as Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake, miners can remain anonymous. So long as they meet the proof-of-work or staking requirements, they can process transactions on the blockchain and in many cases do so anonymously.
Validators are not anonymous. They have applied to become a validator and have undergone a a KYC (“Know Your Customer”) process as part of their application. Our validators are well-known members of the energy community, meet the eligibility requirements and the hardware/software installation specifications to become a validator, and they have a vested interest in the Energy Web Chain’s performance. You can see a full list of Energy Web Chain validators here.
Validator Functions
Validators create blocks: The fundamental role of the Proof-of-Authority validator is to validate transactions, compile valid transactions into blocks and propagate new blocks to the network.
Validators provide network security: By storing the current and historical state of the Energy Web Chain, each validator contributes to the overall integrity and security of the network. Since at least 51% of validators are required to sign each block before it is finalized on the chain, validators provide checks and balances against any erroneous or malicious attempts to publish falsified transactions or alter historical data. Physical decentralization of validator nodes provides redundancy in the event that one or more validators is unavailable due to technical reasons or otherwise compromised.
Validators participate in the the Energy Web Chain's governance: Validators will be asked to offer opinions and contribute to technical and non-technical decisions relating to modifications of the Energy Web client, protocol and validator set.
Why Proof-of-Authority?
Energy Web uses Proof-of-Authority consensus for three primary reasons that benefit the Energy Web’s digital infrastructure, the energy sector that will use the technology, and the environment as a whole.
To enable transaction capacity on the order of hundreds to thousands of transactions per second: we estimate that the Energy Web Chain has the ability to achieve 30x greater throughput capacity than the Ethereum Mainnet;
To minimize resource (i.e. electricity and computation) consumption, and subsequently, transaction costs: Eliminating competitive Proof-of-Work results in 54,000x less energy consumption and 350x lower network costs (i.e. costs incurred by organizations hosting validator nodes) which translates into lower and more stable transaction costs;
To improve compliance with relevant regulations and business requirements in the energy sector: substituting fully anonymous miners for vetted validators enhances the ability of decentralized applications to comply with various regulations, including data-protection regulations like GDPR, and increases the likelihood of widespread user and enterprise adoption.
To improve compliance with relevant regulations and business requirements in the energy sector: substituting fully anonymous miners for vetted validators enhances the ability of decentralized applications to comply with various regulations, including data-protection regulations like GDPR, and increases the likelihood of widespread user and enterprise adoption.
Proof-of-Authority Process
At a high level, the PoA mechanism works as follows:
All validator nodes maintain a complete list of the validators, identified by public keys. This list changes as validators are added or removed. In addition to storing the current and historical state of the network, all validators maintain essential information about the network (such as synchronized timing information and current data processing limits).
For a defined time window, one validator is assigned as the primary validator via the PoA algorithm. During this time, they are responsible for collecting the broadcasted transactions and proposing the new block. Only one validator is designated as primary at a time–based on a calculation derived from the timestamp on synchronized clocks among the validator nodes in the network and the number of validators–in order to prevent validators from arbitrarily creating blocks at irregular intervals.
If a validator fails to create a block when it is selected (e.g., because of hardware problems on the side of the validator) or its block fails to be validated by the pool of nodes (e.g., because of network connectivity problems), the next validator proceeds to create a block with whatever transactions haven’t been processed.
The remaining validator nodes verify that the transactions in each block are legitimate for that time window, sign the block with their private keys, and propagate the signed block to the network.
Once a simple majority of validators have authored a block on top of a given signed block, finality is achieved for that given block, and the block is confirmed by the network and added to the chain.
Additional Resources
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