Blockchain Scalability with the Dragon Net Consensus Mechanism

What is Dragon Net?

Dragon Net is a scaled approach to consensus that uses independent verification nodes provided by Dragonchain users. This means that each node represents its own individual blockchain, utilizing a network of blockchains and eliminating constraints seen with a single mainnet. Verification nodes serve the purpose of verifying blocks from business nodes (Level 1/L1 nodes), in a marketplace based on scarcity, TIME. Each node at each level is its own blockchain and is non-homogenous, meaning that nodes do not all contain the same information.

“What we’re using for scarcity is TIME. You can add resources to a system and effectively decrease the scarcity. But you can’t add time to a system. You can’t falsify time. TIME is a way of us defining exactly that scarcity of time.”

-Paul Sonier

Using Proof of Time as the foundation for consensus, the Dragon Net model is able to overcome issues found in systems based on Proof of Stake and Proof of Work.

5 Levels of Consensus

L1 Nodes: Sensitive data and business logic

Level 1 nodes integrate “real world” value in the form of transactions and business logic. This information is configured by a business or individual and executed by a blockchain node.

L2 Nodes: Validation of block, header, and signatures

Level 2 nodes act as a trusted check of the validity of blocks and individual transactions, without exposing the data itself. Rules for L2 Nodes are defined at the enterprise level.

L3 Nodes: Network diversity of L2 validations

Level 3 nodes check the diversity of a transaction’s Level 2 verifications. This level of consensus will ensure that transactions are validated by a sufficiently varied set of distributed sources.

L4 Nodes: Notary function

A Level 4 node provides a notary functionality to the consensus process. Hosted by an external partner, a level 4 node cryptographically signs any verification record it receives from level 3. This function allows the Level 4 node to act as an independent witness to level 3 verifications.

L5 Nodes: Public checkpoint

Level 5 nodes are a gateway between the Dragonchain platform and public blockchains. When a transaction receives level 5 verification, it can be hosted on a public chain like ETH, ETC or BTC.

The Dragon Net Matchmaking Process

To support our ever-growing network of verification nodes, our team has also designed the Dragon Net Matchmaking Process. It allows you to search for verification nodes based on fields such as level, price, speed, location, and other factors. This procedure is comprised of the following seven steps:

0. Registration (Before Matchmaking): Levels 2–5 nodes register as available for operation with their corresponding node level, TIME, and price. (Note that Dragonchain automatically determines their TIME)

1. Transaction: A Level 1 node receives a transaction, it composes the transactions that come in-in a 5-second period into a single block. When the block is fixated (the L1 node adds an entry to its blockchain with the block), the block is added to a pool of blocks requiring L2 fixation.

2. Fixation Origination: A Level 1 node, at the specific time (dependent upon the L1 node’s TIME) it is allowed to begin fixation, and will look in the pool of blocks which require fixation. It will look in the pool of blocks requiring L2 fixation first, followed by the pool of blocks which require L3 fixation, and so on. For each level, the L1 node will identify the blocks which require fixation at that level.

3. Matchmaking: For any blocks which require fixation at a given level, the L1 node will request that number of matches for that level from the Matchmaking service. The matchmaking service will return a set of the requested size of nodes (registered in step 0). The nodes returned will be chosen randomly from the set of registered nodes, weighted by their TIME/price.

4. Match Validation: The L1 node will evaluate any returned matches that fit its criteria; this will include price, TIME, region, and other potential fitness identifiers. Any matches that do not fit will be discarded.

5. Block Fixation Submission: The L1 node will submit its candidate block (from step 1) to higher level nodes for validation and will persist information about the higher-level node that the block was submitted to.

6. Block Fixation Return (asynchronous): The higher level node that had an L1 block submitted to it will return a notification to the L1 block of the higher level block which the L1 block was fixated into. The L1 node will annotate the metadata of the L1 block with the information about the higher-level block that the L1 block was fixated into. If the block has received all of the fixations that it requires at a given level, it will be promoted into the pool of blocks requiring a higher level fixation, unless it is at the highest level. (L2 pool -> L3 pool -> L4 pool -> L5 pool.)

7. Looping: Then, the L1 node will wait for a period of time (based upon TIME) and begin again with step 2.

Try out Dragon Net’s features on our blockchain platform for yourself and send information through the five levels of consensus in a matter of seconds.