Pulsar Consensus

TL;DR

The paper introduces Pulsar, a novel proof of stake consensus protocol designed for creating sidechains for proof of work blockchains, with a focus on a new chain selection rule and its advantages.

Contribution

It presents the Pulsar protocol, a new density-based chain selection rule, and discusses its design, benefits, and limitations compared to existing proof of stake protocols.

Findings

Pulsar is implemented in the Mintlayer Bitcoin sidechain.

The protocol offers benefits over existing proof of stake designs.

A novel composable density-based chain selection rule is proposed.

Abstract

In this paper, we informally introduce the Pulsar proof of stake consensus paper and discuss the relevant design decisions and considerations. The Pulsar protocol we propose is designed to facilitate the creation of a proof of stake sidechain for a proof of work blockchain. We present an overview of a novel composable density-based chain selection rule for proof of stake systems which can be seen as a superset of some standard existing longest chain rules for proof of stake protocols. We discuss the Pulsar protocol in comparison to existing proof of stake protocols and define its benefits over existing designs while defining the limitations of the work. Pulsar is currently implemented in the Mintlayer proof of stake Bitcoin sidechain.