BEP-341: Validators Can Produce Consecutive Blocks

Summary for Community Voting

This BEP341 proposes a governable framework that can allow the BNB Smart Chain(BSC) to adjust to how priority block-producing rights are allocated to validators in BNB Smart Chain (BSC). Instead of rotating the rights every single slot, each validator will obtain priority rights for a predetermined number of consecutive slots per round. This change aims to enhance the system's transaction processing capacity.

Notes: This BEP proposes enabling configurable settings for consecutive block production in BNB Smart Chain (BSC). Although it keeps the current setting of one block per validator for now, it establishes the framework for future adjustments through the BSC governance process.

Key Points

• Current System: Validators rotate after each slot, splitting their time between validating previous transactions and processing new ones.
• Proposed Change: Validators will have continuous block-producing rights for multiple slots (n). The initial block will follow the current validation and processing split, but subsequent blocks can skip validation and focus on processing new transactions.
• Benefits: This method can improve the average transactions per second (TPS). Optimal performance is expected when n is between 3 and 5 slots.
• Governance: The initial value for n is set to 1, but it can be changed through the BSC governance process, with n ranging from 1 to 9, excluding 2.
• MEV Mitigation: To prevent validators from extracting Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) by delaying transaction inclusion, transaction fees allocated to the SystemRewardContract will increase linearly with each consecutive block produced.
• Transaction Finality: If a validator tries to extract more MEV by placing more transactions in later blocks they produce, it will also increase user transaction confirmation times.

Considerations

• Fairness: The allocation of priority rights is unbiased and cannot be manipulated.
• Security: Relies on BSC’s Fast Finality feature; if this fails, the proposal may cause longer reorganizations and impact transaction finality.
• Liveness: Requires at least half the validators to be active at any moment to ensure block production continuity.

This proposal aims to balance increased transaction processing capacity with fairness, security, and system liveness, providing a robust improvement to the BSC ecosystem.

Participate BEP discussion

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