(IJCH) A Tale of Two Caspers - Ethereum's Phase-In PoS Protocols
(IJCH) A Tale of Two Caspers - Ethereum's Phase-In PoS Protocols
IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)
From the Author
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure to make your acquaintance, it's always nice to meet a fellow Steemian.
Don't Put the Chicken Before the Eggs
If you have not done so already, I highly recommend reading the two precursors of this post first:
Once the above two articles are read, we can now discuss Ethereum's two PoS Casper Protocols: Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget (FFG) and Casper the Friendly GHOST: Correct-by-Construction (CBC).
Casper (FFG)
The first version of the Casper PoS protocol to be implemented by Ethereum is the one by Vtalik Buterin's team of developers.
It is called Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget - "Casper (FFG)". It's consensus mechanism combines PoW protocol and PoS protocol (a hybrid).
In Casper (FFG), a PoS checkpoint protocol layer is placed on top of the current ethash PoW protocol. PoW mining continues until encountering a PoS checkpoint - at every 50th block.
Finality - Forever Etched in Stone
At that time (every 50th block PoS checkpoint), validators step in and perform verification processes to check for "finality".
"Finality" - in the simplest terms - means, that once a certain function or operation has been executed, the record of its executed steps and resulting end data cannot be changed.
In other words, if a completed operation cannot be reversed, its history remains intact, and its end products cannot be altered (after the fact), the current state is said to meet the criteria for "finality" and the block is approved for inclusion into the blockchain.
Theory vs. Real Life
Please Note:
In real life, the fact that hacking into a registry and altering the mark sheet by changing a system's registry data makes it impossible to guarantee perfect 100% "finality".
This is why centralized systems are extremely vulnerable. Even decentalized systems have been compromised in the past.
But in comparison, decentralized systems with high BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) catch malicious behavior much earlier, isolate rogue code quickly and recover faster; while minimizing disruption of network operations.
Historically, any drastic changes occurring within a complex, interdependent ecosystem results in system-wide shock and confusion.
The main purpose of implementing Casper (FFG) first is to serve as a "Pre-PoS" phase.
Rather than switching from pure Pow to full-blown PoS in one swoop, Ethereum hopes to mitigate excessive shock and confusion to all participants in the ecosystem and prevent spawning a network backlog and the resultant transaction lags.
Casper (CBC)
The next version of the Casper PoS protocol to be implemented by Ethereum is called Casper the Friendly GHOST: Correct-by-Construction - "Casper (CBC)".
It was developed by Vlad Zamfir's team. Casper (CBC) employs the correct-by-construction (CBC) protocol. The CBC protocol, unlike normal protocol design, is only partially specified in the beginning of executions.
Properties are defined in both instances, but in CBC, all properties are satisfied by a derivation of the protocol's specification.
Stated differently, it means that the CBC protocol is dynamic, not static - constantly deriving the protocol; continually evolving, perpetually updated protocol.
The Ideal Adversary
To do this, an oracle to estimate safety is implemented. It's called an "ideal adversary" and incrementaly builds the protocol until it is complete by taking a justified safety estimate and raising its fault exceptions.
Don't get caught up in these machinations. The bottom line is that the "ideal adversary" constantly fine-tunes the protocol; making it safer along the way.
This results in a dynamically, robust, high BFT, PoS protocol - the Casper (CBC) protocol.
So what did we learn today?
Vtalik Buterin's Casper (FFG) is a hybrid PoW and PoS protocol and will be implemented first by Ethereum to ease the move from PoW and PoS.
Vlad Zamfir's Casper (CBC) PoS protocol will be the next implementation of Ethereum PoS and derives a proof of safety by using an "ideal adversary".
If you need to review some terms and topics from the two preceding articles, here are the links again:
Ethereum PoS Trilogy - Conclusions
With the implementation of the Casper PoS protocols, Ethereum will become a more robust, more secure (higher BFT) and less power hungry platform.
Additionally, Ethereum will enjoy a huge scalabilty boost (via sharding) and drastically increase the network's tps (transactions per second) rate.
Security, Speed and Efficiency. Imagine that?
By JaiChai
Many thanks for reading my post. And if you enjoyed it, please: Upvote, Follow, Comment and Resteem.
"My mind was a terrible thing to waste..." - JaiChai
About the Author
JaiChai has been in the Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency spaces for many years. He is an enigma, regarded by his cohorts as sarcastic, funny, intuitive, but most of all - elusive. He’s known for randomly submitting philosophical and contrarian posts on most forums.
JaiChai alternates long dormant periods with concentrated episodes of frenzied commentary - only to go silent again.
When asked about his vanishing acts, he says, "I’m just somebody who enjoys being nobody because I look like everybody. Besides, time checking things off my 'bucket list’ - sans notoriety - is time well spent.”
Parting Shot
Nice Trilogy. Try doing one on EOS and DPoS which is also used by Bitshares and STEEM. Currently they are the best scaled blockchains on the planet. They are also fee-less.
http://www.blocktivity.info/
@vimukthi,
Thanks for stopping by.
Namaste, my friend.
JaiChai
upvoted
@leggy23,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Reciprocated.
Namaste,
JaiChai
@originalworks