Cardano’s Ouroboros Is A Game-Changer Protocol: Aggelos Kiayias

Cardano’s Ouroboros, the proof-of-stake protocol will bring even more decentralization and a game-changer for the platform according to the project’s scientist professor Aggelos Kiayias as he detailed the principals on which the protocol is based on, so let’s find out more in our Cardano ADA news.

The two main elements of the proof-of-stake protocol are the persistence and liveness in order to make a successful distributed ledger system according to the professor. It seems however that the systems based on very simple ideas are the hardest ones to deliver. Kiayias explained the problems of the decentralized systems and even provided a detailed view of how Cardano’s Ouroboros managed to solve these issues. The two key elements are a promise of a consistent view to all of the participants which guarantees responsiveness and flow of events. The easy method can also succeed in centralized systems but it will give the systems a point of failure which will make it vulnerable to attacks.

Ouroboros, an integral part of Cardano, is the only provably secure, peer-reviewed proof of stake protocol to be implemented. IOHK’s researcher Dr. Peter Gaži presents Ouroboros at MIT in this video: https://t.co/ISHT52jiXn

— Cardano Foundation (@CardanoStiftung) February 18, 2018

Designing an improved decentralized system is much more complex as they require developing models that encompass different attacks that the system could encounter and prove that both liveness and persistence are upheld at all times. A well-designed decentralized system will continue to function even if someone tries to deviate the operations. The system could also be created in a way that it could handle more deviations without suffering too much damage. Having a reliable decentralized system means combining formal guarantees against various types of attack models with the biggest one being the Byzantine model.

The Byzantine model guarantees that the liveness and persistence of the system will be maintained if a larger part of the participants on the network deviates from the network’s rules. According to Kiayias, what makes Ouroboros unique is the fact that it combines a few different design elements that take into consideration both Bytanzine and other rational behaviors. The protocol uses stake as a primary resource to identify the leverage of the participants in the system. Apart from being resistant to attacks such as the 51% attack, staking on Ouroboros requires minimal physical resources to run. Kiayias said:

 “Of those participants who are active, barely more than half need to follow the protocol—the rest can arbitrarily deviate.”

The protocol could even tolerate spikes above the 50 percent threshold if they don’t last too long. Ouroboros is flexible and much more resilient than the classical Byzantine and other model adaptations.