Sharpedo: Dual-Mode Uncertified DAG-Based Consensus Protocol

Abstract

Mysticeti and Mahi-Mahi represent leading approaches to consensus protocols, leveraging a novel uncertified Directed Acyclic Graph data structure to achieve substantial performance benefits compared to prior work. Mysticeti and Mahi-Mahi differ in their underlying network assumptions, where the former makes assumptions about timing bounds for communication while the latter does not. Mysticeti trades robustness for lower levels of latency in ideal conditions, whereas Mahi-Mahi favours increased latency in order to ensure stronger progress guarantees in asynchronous settings. Although dual-mode protocols exist (i.e., protocols that can adapt do different network assumptions), none have been implemented to take full advantage of the novel data structure seen in the aforementioned protocols. Thus, our research project aims to trace the progression of consensus protocols, analyse how they address network assumptions constraints, and explore dual-mode protocols. Then, we present Sharpedo, the first dual-mode uncertified Directed Acyclic Graph consensus protocols which aims to achieve the best of both worlds: the high-performance of partially-synchronous protocols, while providing guarantees of progress even in asynchronous settings. Furthermore, Sharpedo integrates a novel dynamic scheduling mechanism resulting in improved system efficiency and performance optimization.