The growing popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the growing demand for decentralized applications (dApps) gave rise to Fantom. Fantom is a smart blockchain offering not only fast but also scalable solutions based on its unique Lachesis consensus mechanism.
This platform offers an alternative to Ethereum and allows the development of integrated digital assets and DApps. The Fantom network was launched in 2019 and aims to solve the blockchain trilemma of decentralization, security and scalability.
What is Fantom?
Fantom is an inclusive smart contract platform that uses a share confirmation consensus mechanism (PoS) with asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance (aBFT). This solution maintains network efficiency, increases maximum speed and provides high security at lower cost.
The aBFT network structure helps overcome the limitations of the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) model by promoting node interoperability at the block validation level through the use of a two-thirds qualified majority algorithm. The peculiarity of this algorithm is that block creators have to validate each block twice: in the first step, they propose a new irreversible block, and in the second step, they finalize that proposal.
What makes Fantom unique?
The “leaderless” consensus mechanism of this platform is called Lachesis. It provides network security and higher transaction speeds using aBFT consensus. A feature of the Lachesis protocol is its ability to process network data at different times, regardless of the time zones in which the nodes are located. Fantom uses a modular approach and has a flexible and unbound consensus layer connected to a distributed registry.
Fantom differs from other proof-of-work (PoW) networks in its speed: transactions on this platform are confirmed in just a few seconds.
The aBFT consensus mechanism increases the speed and scalability of the network by eliminating lengthy block validation processes.
The Lachesis consensus mechanism distinguishes Fantom from Ethereum and other blockchains. With Lachesis, developers can create peer-to-peer (P2P) applications without having to raise their own network layer.
Here are a few other distinguishing features of Lachesis:
- It is asynchronous, which means participants are free to process commands in different time zones.
- It has no leader, which means it has no specialized roles and no prioritized nodes.
- Byzantine fault tolerance allows the consensus mechanism to continue functioning correctly until a third of all nodes fail.
- Lachesis is final, so the output can be used immediately: there is no need to wait for block validation, and transactions are finalized in one or two seconds.
The developers claim that Lachesis was created to overcome the limitations of existing consensus mechanisms. Fantom is ideal for DApps that require high finality rates, throughput and security.
The consensus engine enables the creation of applications and improved versions of already available products in the supply chain and payment tracking sectors.
Fantom’s background
The Fantom Foundation team consists of entrepreneurs, designers, researchers, scientists and engineers who share a similar vision of building infrastructure for an efficient and democratic future.
Michael Kong is the Fantom Foundation’s CEO/Director of Information Technology and André Cronje is a DeFi architect. The company was founded by a South Korean information scientist, Dr. Ahn Byung Ik.
The developers call themselves “blockchain integrators”. They have invested in Fantom network compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and the Cosmos SDK package.
In addition, Lachesis boasts compatibility with ABCI (Advanced Blockchain Interface). Users can integrate it as a separate consensus module into other blockchains.
What problems is Fantom trying to solve?
The Fantom platform is focused on solving basic development problems: speed, cost and security.
Increased transaction speed
As a rule, blocks take a long time to be confirmed. And Fantom’s consensus mechanism provides near-instant transaction finalization, sending confirmation a second or two after posting.
Low cost
According to data published on the web wallet’s website https://fantomwallet.network/, fund transfers on the Fantom network cost only $0.016 as of February 2022 (however, this is only true when using the above wallet, transactions made with other wallets and exchanges may cost more).
Nevertheless, compared to Ethereum, for example, Fantom is much cheaper to use. For example, over the past few months, the lowest average transaction fee on Ethereum was $2.15. Meanwhile, the Ethereum platform, for example, had transaction fees of nearly $70 in May 2021.
Ethereum has high gas fees due to network congestion, which also reduces the scalability of the platform. The long-awaited ETH 2.0 is intended to solve this problem in the future. However, Fantom already has these features built in, which is why fees on this platform are so low.
Improved cross-platform interoperability
Fantom’s compatibility with the Cosmos SDK and EVM opens up a lot of possibilities for developers, facilitating interaction between different blockchain platforms.
Fantom’s innovative technologies
The consensus mechanism is the core of any distributed system. In decentralized environments, there is no supervisory authority to verify transactions.
Therefore, a consensus protocol is needed to ensure agreement among all participants in the network.
Here are the key innovations of the Fantom blockchain.
Asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance
The term “Byzantine fault tolerance” describes the network’s ability to achieve consensus despite the presence of dishonest participants or incorrect information.
This ability is limited by the blockchain trilemma, according to which only two of these three components can be present simultaneously:
- Scalability
- Security
- Decentralization
In the Fantom network, nodes reach consensus independently of each other because they do not need to exchange completed blocks. For this reason, the PoS consensus mechanism has no leaders.
While the correct operation of practical BFT (pBFT) depends on the confirmed delivery of messages between nodes, in the aBFT consensus mechanism these messages can be lost or delayed without affecting its performance. Such an algorithm protects the network from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It also reduces transaction latency and increases network scalability.
Directional acyclic graph (DAG technology) in every node
Before explaining the concept of a directed acyclic graph, let us clarify that the “graph” in this term describes a network of connected nodes. Such nodes transmit information to each other.
If information passes through the network, hitting the same node no more than once, then the graph is cyclic.
Accordingly, an acyclic graph has no cycles. Information has no path that allows it to return to the sending node without passing through other nodes.
DAG technology connects multiple chains of blocks in such a way that information can be retrieved without a direct connection to the sending (parent) node.
This reduces latency many times over, since the information does not have to be confirmed by the previous block before moving on to the next.
In Fantom, each network node has a separate DAG module that records the chronology of blocks of transactions and events. As a result of the interaction of all these technologies, closed blocks appear in the Fantom blockchain.
Independent nodes do not need to validate closed blocks. They only occasionally exchange event and transaction information with each other.
It is this architecture that allows Fantom to process transactions so quickly.
Opera: the Fantom core network
Fantom Opera’s main cryptocurrency blockchain deployment network is an inclusive, open-source environment that hosts dApps.
The Opera network has the same wide range of smart contracting features as Ethereum. It also integrates with the Ethereum virtual machine and supports the Solidity programming language used for smart contracts on the Ethereum network.
Fantom Foundation developed the Opera network to overcome the limitations of older blockchains.
Previously, blockchains used PoW mechanisms with stochastic finality that required significant time to complete transactions. Bitcoin’s average finality time is about 60 minutes. Ethereum has a higher figure of 6 minutes. Opera, on the other hand, takes about one or two seconds to finalize.
Opera is the second layer of the network. It issues rewards and records history, which the platform uses to track all transactions.
