A consensus protocol with deterministic finality

Abstract

Proof-of-Validation (PoV) is a fair, immutable, and fully decentralized blockchain consensus protocol with an O(1) asymptotic message complexity. The original PoV proposal lacks deterministic finality, which guarantees that a valid block will not be revoked once it is committed to the blockchain. Supporting deterministic finality yields a fork-resistant blockchain. In this extended abstract, we pitch the architectural outline of our proposed Finalita, which is the extension of PoV that enables deterministic finality. Blockchains running with Finalita feature deterministic finality, in addition to all qualities supported by the original PoV.