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VeChain upgrades to Proof of Authority 2.0 consensus mechanism

November 17, 2021No Comments


Supply chain monitoring network VeChain just updated its consensus mechanism to what it claims is the "world's greenest" method of verifying blocks on the chain.

On November 16, VeChain reached a milestone in its six-year history by upgrading its VeChainThor mainnet to the first phase of the Proof of Authority (PoA) 2.0 SURFACE consensus algorithm.

VeChain is a supply chain monitoring system which launched in 2015 and combines physical tracking with blockchain record keeping.

PoA and Proof of Stake (PoS) differ from Proof of Work (PoW) in that they do not require mining to reach network consensus. PoA achieves consensus by verifying user identities, while PoS does so by betting coins on the network.

The VeChain network runs with only 101 nodes. Fewer nodes reduce decentralization but increase network speed and reliability. This tends to be favored for commercial and industrial applications. By comparison, Bitcoin currently has 13,244 nodes, while Ethereum has 2,701.

An additional advantage is that PoA consumes less energy and emits a very low amount of carbon. VeChain suggested that the new update is the "world's greenest consensus to drive mass adoption."

The update consists of three main components according to the official ad. The first is a verifiable randomness function (VRF) that safely and randomly assigns nodes to produce blocks or process transactions, making them immune to corruption.

The second is a committee-endorsed block production process that significantly reduces the likelihood of network bifurcation. Branching can cause delays and slow network performance.

The third component is a process of confirming the purpose of the passive block. This helps ensure that new blocks are finalized even if all nodes on the network are out of sync.

The PoA 2.0 SURFACE update also aims to improve scalability, security, and performance on the VeChainThor backbone.

The VeChain team explained in the announcement that PoA 2.0's Secure Use Case Adaptive Relatively Fork-Free Chain Extension Approach is necessary "to meet the demands of future blockchain applications and growing global demand."

Related: VeChain Thor mainnet reaches 10 million block milestone with no downtime

Various exchanges, including Binance and Crypto.com, supported the VeChain (VET) hard fork, which has fallen by around 10% in the last 24 hours.

The VeChain project also announced on November 16 the election of the second steering committee (SC). The SC is designed to "facilitate the efficiency of decision-making and guarantee the fairness and effectiveness of the execution of all fundamental matters."