What is the expected consensus mechanism of Filecoin? - Interchain Pulse

What is Filecoin’s intended consensus mechanism?

Filecoin's consensus mechanism is Expected Consensus (EC), in which one or more miners are elected in each round to create a new block. The probability of a miner winning the election is proportional to the miner's current effective storage.

Author: Golden Finance Misaki

Filecoin's consensus mechanism is Expected Consensus (EC), which elects one or more miners in each round to create a new block. The probability of a miner winning the election is proportional to the miner's current effective storage. Filecoin converts the current storage data of a miner in the network relative to the storage ratio of the entire network into the voting power of the miner.

Filecoin has a mortgage mechanism that forces participants to choose a chain. By cleverly combining the mortgage mechanism, miners who mine multiple chains at the same time are punished, which can promote convergence very quickly. The implementation of the expected consensus is very simple. It does not require interaction. The node can calculate whether it has become a leader, and others can easily verify it after it is announced.

In order to calculate the miners' computing power and determine the miners' proof of time and space, the Filecoin protocol uses two algorithms, proof of replication and proof of time and space, to ensure the operation of the EC consensus mechanism. These two proofs are also the most important protocols in the Filecoin protocol.

Proof-of-Replication (PoRep) is a proof that miners have to prove to the system that they have indeed stored the data needed by the user, rather than temporarily obtaining data from other nodes or sources. This proof is an indicator set by the system to prevent Sybil attacks. In addition, it can also prevent external attacks and generated attacks.

Proof-of-Spacetime-PoSt is a way for miners to prove to the system that they not only store the user's data, but also store the user's data for a certain period of time. This is an indicator for miners to prove to the system the effectiveness and stability of data storage.

The replication proof and space-time proof of the Filecoin system are the core protocols that distinguish it from other blockchain projects. They also fundamentally define Filecoin as a reasonable, efficient, and decentralized system. Filecoin's consensus mechanism embodies fairness, confidentiality, and public verifiability.