This third entry in our exploration of the Polygon Edge framework will provide an in-depth overview of the consensus mechanism used by Dogechain.

More precisely, it will cover the mechanics behind the IBFT PoA and PoS engines of Polygon Edge, their differences, and their benefits. Finally, it will provide details on why Dogechain opted for the PoS option and the ramifications of this choice.

TL;DR

• Bitcoin popularized Proof of Work, but quickly showed its limitations regarding scalability.
• Even though Dogecoin uses a lighter version of a PoW algorithm, it still requires high amounts of electricity to function.
• Proof of Stake is a scalable and sustainable alternative to PoW.
• Polygon Edge implements an IBFT consensus engine and provides two options — PoA and PoS.
• PoA is an ideal solution for enterprise blockchains, whereas PoS better suits public blockchains like Dogechain.

A Bit of Background on Consensus Mechanisms

When it was released in 2008, bitcoin introduced the public to Proof of Work. This incredible innovation allowed the creation of decentralized money and enabled miners to confirm transactions on an immutable, distributed ledger.

As other cryptocurrencies emerged, they quickly adopted this mechanism for confirming transactions on their blockchain. Litecoin, as the first altcoin, forked from the bitcoin code and modified it to work on the Scrypt algorithm instead of SHA-256. Its main goal was to make the chain more lightweight, with cost-effective, faster transactions.

Continuing this trend of light and cheap blockchains, Dogecoin forked out of Litecoin and proposed the meme coin that we all love today.

Nevertheless, PoW quickly showed its scalability limitations. As more miners and users joined the network, the algorithm’s difficulty kept increasing. This, in turn, increased the power required to confirm transactions, fuelling the narrative that crypto is detrimental to the environment.

This is equally true for every PoW blockchain, including Dogecoin. As it gets support from community leaders like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, the original meme crypto is continuing to rise in popularity. This increases its carbon footprint significantly, consuming as much power as a small country on a yearly basis.

As a result, we have seen the development of alternative solutions for reaching consensus within a blockchain, with Proof of Stake quickly becoming the most prevalent one. In a PoS network, there are no miners. Instead, validators stake significant amounts of tokens which incentivizes them to provide honest work while confirming transactions.

The absence of miners allows PoS networks to consume significantly less energy, making them much more environmentally friendly. What’s more, they are also more scalable and provide higher throughput than their PoW counterparts.

The Polygon Edge framework proposes the IBFT consensus engine in two flavors: PoS and PoA

Introducing the Polygon Edge IBFT PoA (Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus mechanism

The Polygon Edge framework comes with baked-in Istanbul BFT Proof of Authority (PoA), which is a modified implementation of the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance algorithm.

In a nutshell, IBFT’s advantage is that it ensures immediate finality. Here, each block requires multiple rounds of voting by the set of validators to arrive at a mutual agreement. This agreement is recorded as a collection of signatures on the block content.

Here’s how it works:

• To start, a group of nodes are selected to form the pool of validators. These nodes will be in charge of determining if a proposed block is suitable for addition to the chain.
• One of these validator nodes will be arbitrarily selected as the proposer. This single proposer, having received messages from the pool of validators, will make his decision as to what to add to the chain. This is presented as a proposed block to the other validators.

A validator never assumes the “leader”, or “block proposer”, to be correct or honest. Instead, validators verify each block and vote on its veracity.

By definition, Byzantine Fault Tolerance means a network can continue to function correctly even if some nodes are dishonest. An IBFT network will continue to process blocks regardless of whether there’s an attempt to propose invalid blocks or blocks that benefit certain parties at the expense of others.

Roughly, IBFT tolerates ⅓ of faulty nodes, which translates to a “supermajority” algorithm. This means that ⅔ of the validators need to agree on adding a new block to the chain.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the validator set participating in block production is dynamic and it can be shrunk or expanded at each new block. Validators can vote for the exclusion of malicious validators and ensure the inclusion of trusted ones.

Proof of Stake as a Second Option in Polygon Edge

IBFT PoA is quite practical when it comes to consortiums or private blockchains used by enterprises. However, regarding public blockchains like Dogechain, PoS comes out as the better solution.

IBFT PoS inherits most of the PoA characteristics, with the addition of staking funds on the blockchain. It provides higher incentives for onboarding validators, ensuring a smooth and decentralized launch of the chain.

Fortunately, Polygon Edge provides node operators with the choice between PoA and PoS when launching a new chain. What’s more, they can migrate from PoS to PoA and vice versa further down the road, if the need materializes.

In Polygon Edge’s PoS, validators stake funds on the network and receive rewards for providing honest work from the transaction fees. In addition to this incentive, the protocol implements a penalization system called slashing.

If a validator acts maliciously, the protocol will confiscate a portion of their staked tokens. Additionally, the validator can be temporarily or permanently isolated from participating any further in the consensus.

The platform equally implements the notion of Epochs. Epochs are considered to be a special time frame (in blocks) in which a certain set of validators can produce blocks. At the end of an Epoch, the protocol creates an Epoch block.

Epoch blocks are special blocks that contain no transactions and occur only at the end of an epoch. They perform additional logic that shouldn’t occur during regular block production. Additionally, they signal the moment when new validators can be added to the set, and/or malicious ones removed from it.

Concluding Thoughts

By adopting Polygon Edge’s PoS, Dogechain provides a genuine future-proof, scalable and sustainable smart contract platform. Wrapping Dogecoin on the network will reduce the strain on the original Dogechain blockchain, while simultaneously providing added utility for $DOGE.

Dogechain is bringing DeFi & long awaited utility to Dogecoin. Join the family!

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