An enterprise-grade Java-based, Apache 2.0 licensed Ethereum client https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/besu

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description: Pantheon IBFT 2.0 Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus protocol implementation

*[Vanity]: Validators can include anything they like as vanity data. *[RLP]: Recursive Length Prefix

IBFT 2.0

Pantheon implements the IBFT 2.0 Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus protocol. IBFT 2.0 can be used for private networks.

In IBFT 2.0 networks, transactions and blocks are validated by approved accounts, known as validators. Validators take turns to create the next block. Existing validators propose and vote to add or remove validators.

Genesis File

To use IBFT 2.0 requires an IBFT 2.0 genesis file. The genesis file defines properties specific to IBFT 2.0:

!!! example "IBFT 2.0 Genesis File (stripped)" json { "config": { ... "ibft2": { "blockperiodseconds": 2, "epochlength": 30000, "requesttimeoutseconds": 10 } }, "nonce": "0x0", "extraData": "0xf853a00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ea94be068f726a13c8d46c44be6ce9d275600e1735a4945ff6f4b66a46a2b2310a6f3a93aaddc0d9a1c193808400000000c0", "difficulty": "0x1", "mixHash": "0x63746963616c2062797a616e74696e65206661756c7420746f6c6572616e6365", ... }

Properties specific to IBFT 2.0 are:

blockperiodseconds - Minimum block time in seconds.
epochlength - Number of blocks after which to reset all votes.
requesttimeoutseconds - Timeout for each consensus round before a round change.
extraData - RLP([32 Bytes Vanity, List, No Votes, Round=Int(0), 0 Seals])

The extraData property is RLP encoded. RLP encoding is a space efficient object serialization scheme used in Ethereum. You can use a library such as EthereumJS RLP to encode and decode RLP strings.

!!! example "Decoding Extra Data Example"

Using the [EthereumJS RLP](https://github.com/ethereumjs/rlp) library: 
```bash
rlp decode "0xf853a00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ea94be068f726a13c8d46c44be6ce9d275600e1735a4945ff6f4b66a46a2b2310a6f3a93aaddc0d9a1c193808400000000c0"
```

The decoded result is: 
```json
[ '0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000',
  [ 'be068f726a13c8d46c44be6ce9d275600e1735a4',
    '5ff6f4b66a46a2b2310a6f3a93aaddc0d9a1c193' ],
  '',
  '00000000',
  [] 
]
```

Properties that have specific values in IBFT 2.0 genesis files are:

nonce - 0x0
difficulty - 0x1
mixHash - 0x63746963616c2062797a616e74696e65206661756c7420746f6c6572616e6365 for Istanbul block identification.

To start a node on an IBFT 2.0 private network, use the --genesis-file option to specify the custom genesis file.

Optional Configuration Options

Optional configuration options that can be specified in the genesis file are:

messageQueueLimit - Default is 1000. In very large networks with insufficient resources increasing the message queue limit may help to deal with message activity surges.
duplicateMesageLimit - Default is 100. If seeing messages being retransmitted by the same node, increasing the duplicate message limit may reduce the number of retransmissions. A value of 2 to 3 times the number of validators is generally sufficient.

Adding and Removing Validators

To propose adding or removing validators using the JSON-RPC methods, enable the HTTP interface using --rpc-http-enabled or WebSockets interface using --rpc-ws-enabled.

The IBFT API methods are not enabled by default. To enable, specify the --rpc-http-api or --rpc-ws-api option and include IBFT.

The JSON-RPC methods to add or remove validators are:

To propose adding a validator, call ibft_proposeValidatorVote specifying the address of the node to be added and true. !!! example "JSON-RPC ibft_proposeValidatorVote Request Example" bash curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"ibft_proposeValidatorVote","params":["0xFE3B557E8Fb62b89F4916B721be55cEb828dBd73", true], "id":1}' <JSON-RPC-endpoint:port>

When the next block is proposed by the validator, one proposal received from ibft_proposeValidatorVote is inserted in the block.
If all proposals have been included in blocks, subsequent blocks proposed by the validator will not contain a vote.

When more than half of the existing validators have published a matching proposal, the proposed validator is added to the validator pool and can begin validating blocks.

Use ibft_getValidatorsByBlockNumber to return a list of the validators and confirm your proposed validator has been added.

!!! example "JSON-RPC ibft_getValidatorsByBlockNumber Request Example" bash curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"ibft_getValidatorsByBlockNumber","params":["latest"], "id":1}' <JSON-RPC-endpoint:port>

To discard your proposal after confirming the validator was added, call ibft_discardValidatorVote specifying the address of the proposed validator.

!!! example "JSON-RPC ibft_discardValidatorVote Request Example" bash curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"ibft_discardValidatorVote","params":["0xFE3B557E8Fb62b89F4916B721be55cEb828dBd73"], "id":1}' <JSON-RPC-endpoint:port>

The process for removing a validator is the same as adding a validator except you specify false as the second parameter of ibft_proposeValidatorVote.

Epoch Transition

At each epoch transition, all pending votes collected from received blocks are discarded. Existing proposals remain in effect and validators re-add their vote the next time they create a block.

An epoch transition occurs every epochLength blocks where epochlength is defined in the IBFT genesis file.

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