Session 02 Mysticeti v1

Summary

The speaker discusses the engineering team's breakthrough in transaction finality, introducing 'Misti', the world's fastest consensus engine aiming to achieve instant finality for shared objects. They highlight the importance of reducing latency for a better user experience and outline the innovative multi-leader DAG-based consensus protocol, which significantly reduces latency and promises unlimited throughput, setting a new standard for web 3 and global decentralized networks.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The engineering team has over 70 PhDs working on cutting-edge technologies like consensus, cryptography, and storage for web 3 and the broader web.
• 🔍 They are developing a solution called 'Misti' to achieve instant transaction finality for shared objects, similar to the speed of single-writer objects.
• 🏁 Misti aims to reduce transaction finality time significantly, with current industry-leading times being 2 seconds, and the goal being under half a second.
• 📉 Latency in user experience negatively impacts satisfaction, with each second of delay causing a 19% worse experience, highlighting the importance of reducing wait times.
• 🔄 The company's blockchain has unlimited throughput, emphasizing the need to focus on reducing latency beyond just increasing throughput.
• 🛠️ Different transaction types have varying finality times; single owner objects are instant, while shared object transactions take longer and are the focus of optimization.
• 🔧 The 'fast path' allows single object transactions to bypass consensus, significantly reducing their finality time to 500 milliseconds.
• 🌐 The company uses a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based system for consensus, which offers advantages over linear-based systems in terms of resilience and performance.
• 📈 The introduction of 'MRTI' (presumably a next-generation consensus mechanism) promises an 80% reduction in latency, with block times as low as 80 milliseconds.
• 🎯 MRTI's design allows for a more efficient consensus mechanism, which does not require verifying the DAG for each block progression, streamlining the process.
• 📚 The company's research and development are peer-reviewed and scientifically robust, with educational institutions set to teach MRTI as a course.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the engineering team's work as described in the script?

The engineering team is focused on developing advanced technologies related to consensus, cryptography, and storage, aiming to revolutionize the world of web 3 and the web as a whole.

What is the current challenge the team is trying to address in transaction finality?

The team is working on making transaction finality for shared objects as fast as single writer objects, aiming to achieve instant finality even when transactions require coordination.

What does 'Misti' stand for and what is its significance?

Misti is the name given to the world's fastest consensus engine developed by the team. It signifies the breakthrough in achieving faster transaction finality and reducing latency in blockchain transactions.

Why is latency a critical issue in blockchain technology according to the script?

Latency is a critical issue because it directly impacts user experience. Research has shown that every second of latency can worsen the user experience by 19%, which is why reducing latency is a priority.

What is the current transaction finality time for shared object transactions on the blockchain mentioned in the script?

The current transaction finality time for shared object transactions is between one and a half to two seconds.

How does the script differentiate between single owner objects and shared object transactions?

Single owner objects, such as asset transfers, happen instantly within 500 milliseconds. Shared object transactions, like marketplace transactions and collaborative games, currently take longer to finalize, between one and a half to two seconds.

What are the key components of transaction finality that the script mentions?

The key components of transaction finality mentioned in the script are block time, transaction finality, and settlement finality, which all contribute to the overall speed and efficiency of the blockchain.

What is the significance of the 'fast path' in the context of the script?

The 'fast path' allows single object transactions to bypass the consensus process, leading to a faster transaction finality of 500 milliseconds, showcasing the potential for high-speed transactions.

What are the two types of consensus algorithms discussed in the script?

The two types of consensus algorithms discussed are linear-based consensus algorithms and DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) based systems, each with their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of latency and throughput.

What is the goal of the 'MRTI' consensus protocol as described in the script?

The goal of the 'MRTI' consensus protocol is to combine the benefits of a DAG-based system with the low latency of a linear-based system, aiming to achieve an 80% reduction in latency and an 80-millisecond block time.

What are the expected improvements with the implementation of MRTT in the mainnet by July 2024?

The implementation of MRTT is expected to reduce consensus latency from 1.9 seconds to 390 milliseconds and settlement end-to-end latency from 2.2 seconds to 690 milliseconds, making it the fastest chain for latency in the world.