Orcfax validators: reaching L2 consensus
R&D into Orxfax Network consensus funded through the Catalyst F12 campaign.
This page will provide documentation pertaining to the execution of the proposal and links to each of the deliverables required for their respective Milestones. The full Catalyst proposal can be found here.
Problem statement
Many Cardano projects need a Layer 2 solution for scaling the performance of their decentralized consensus logic but they are struggling to understand and implement appropriate solutions.
Proposed solution
Orcfax will research Cardano-native and L2 protocols, design an architecture stack, and develop proof-of-concept software to test the L2 consensus model in the Orcfax validator network.
Milestone 1
Orcfax produced a research report which evaluated L2 protocols and tools available to Cardano projects with the hope that the exercise would inform proof-of-concept development in subsequent milestones.
Orcfax conducted limited research which investigates a sample set of consensus protocols. This research was executed with a limited initial understanding of the consensus landscape, but covers topics such as:
- what might be Orcfax requirements for staking?
- what consensus resources exist for Cardano developers?
- how do these resources map to Orcfax requirements?
This research and its findings are made available in A Comparative Analysis of Consensus Protocols used in Blockchain Networks (Wallis & Koch, 2024)
Milestone 2
After the successful completion of milestone 1 and its research objectives, work on the consensus PoC can begin; however, a number of considerations must be be assessed which are quite impactful on design. Some of these consideration are economical.
As Orcfax prepares to for milestone 3 which will conclude with the completion of a consensus PoC, we have documented the economic considerations and their relationship to our other proposal (i.e. implementing a staking mechanism); our findings are made available here along with a use case description, and diagrams where appropriate.
Milestone 3
Orcfax will produce software code that demonstrates how a validator node operator can:
- receive external source data
- apply validation logic
- compare results with other nodes in the L2 network
- arrive at consensus on datum value