Good afternoon, dear audience. Today we are going to take a brief look at the technical features of the SEI project, talk about innovations and draw some conclusions.
As always, we will use the simplest and most understandable terms (as far as possible in the context of this issue).
Table of contents
- Criteria for attractiveness for investors and users
- Twin-Turbo consensus
- Parallel application streams
1. Criteria for attractiveness for investors and users
Before we move on to the technical features, let’s look at the attractiveness of the project for investors and ordinary users. In our previous reviews, we have come to the conclusion that Sei is a high-speed blockchain. So why is a high-speed blockchain attractive to investors and users?
- Transaction efficiency: A high-speed blockchain is capable of processing a large number of transactions in a short period of time. This means that users can complete their transactions quickly and efficiently, without delays or network congestion. Investors can also execute fast trading operations, receive quick transaction confirmations, and track the movement of funds.
- Cost reduction: A high-speed blockchain can reduce transaction costs for investors and users. Due to the high speed of transaction processing, the fees associated with the execution of transactions can be reduced. This provides accessibility and economic benefits for users, and increases the interest of investors in using such a blockchain (or investing in its development).
- User experience: A high-speed blockchain improves the user experience by providing instant transaction confirmations and fast transfer of funds. This will make the process of interacting with the blockchain more convenient and efficient for users, which will attract more people to use such a system.
- Expanded opportunities: The high-speed blockchain opens up new opportunities for the application of blockchain technology in various industries (this is if we talk about theoretical applications in everyday life). If we look at this through the prism of building other projects on such a blockchain, it gives very big advantages due to the sheer speed of processing and makes such projects more competitive.
- Competitive advantages: The blockchain provides a competitive advantage to companies and projects that use this technology. Investors are looking for innovative projects that can ensure fast and efficient asset turnover, which increases interest in blockchain. Users also prefer fast transactions and ease of use.
- Scalability: A high-speed blockchain can support a large volume of transactions and scale to be used in a variety of industries. This makes it attractive to large enterprises that need to execute transactions quickly and smoothly, such as financial institutions, logistics companies, and retailers.
- Trust and security: A high-speed blockchain can provide a high level of security through the use of strong cryptographic algorithms and consensus protocols. This makes it attractive to investors and users, as they can be confident in the safety of their assets and transactions.
In general, the high-speed blockchain is attractive to investors and users because of its high speed, low costs, improved user experience, and expanded capabilities in various industries. It provides competitive advantages and promotes the development of innovative projects, which ensures the growth of interest and trust in such solutions.
2. Twin-Turbo consensus
SEI is a very fast blockchain, but how exactly did this performance come about? Roughly speaking, it was based on the Tendermint core based on Cosmos, which was modified, new functionality was added, and the performance was optimized. In simple terms, we took the blockchain and threw away everything unnecessary, and this is what made it possible to increase the speed and processing of information. As a result of such corrections, we received a turbo consensus.
Let’s first see how block allocation works on the Cosmos blockchain. First, a user sends a request to process a transaction to a node or validator.
After receiving the transaction, it is added to a kind of pool and the same information is distributed to other nodes and validators in parallel. When one of the validators collects a new block, it sends it to the other validators for voting. After voting, the block is added to the main chain, and the user receives a notification about the transaction.
But if all validators have access to the same pool and have information about all transactions, then we do not need to send this block within the network (it will be enough to send out transaction hashes that will be included in the new block). What does this give us? Since we will be distributing hashes of functions in the block instead of transactions, we will make this block “lighter”, which in turn will give us the opportunity to distribute it faster.
Now for the optimistic processing of blocks. As part of the Tendermint consensus, validators receive blocks, verify their correctness, and prepare them for preliminary voting.
Schematically, it will look like this:
After successful finalization, the block is added to the blockchain (as we have already shown in the previous figure).
But finalization itself takes a lot of time as part of the processing of the entire block. Instead of waiting for the pre-processing (preparatory step) to be completed and then starting finalization, validators can start the optimistic process of processing the block they have assembled earlier. The collected block is placed in the cache. If the block is accepted by the blockchain, the data from the cache is processed.
It will look like this:
3. Parallel application streams
What about parallel processing of transactions?
When validators receive a block and start processing it, they initiate the initial processing algorithm for that block. This is followed by the stage of transaction processing, after which the algorithm for the final processing of the block is launched.
Validators can process transactions sequentially, but this process will take a lot of time. In contrast, the system has a mechanism for parallel processing of transactions.
First, all transactions in the main block are processed (token transfers, voting, smart contract calls). Then the limit transactions that are part of the limit orders are processed (they are executed at the stage of final block processing). This mechanism allows transactions to be executed in parallel, which increases blockchain performance.
But not all transactions can be executed in parallel. If we interact with a smart contract that will send tokens to another wallet, then at least two transactions will be involved that we cannot process in parallel, because until the first transaction is completed, there will be no tokens on the contract balance. Only after the first transaction is completed can the second one be executed.
What does this give us? Conditional classification and distribution of transaction types significantly reduces the amount of processing time, and parallel distribution significantly reduces the load on the system and improves the performance of the blockchain itself.
Thus, the correct distribution of the load and processing of transactions gives us a high rate of “speed” of the blockchain, which in turn makes it very attractive for both users and investors in general.
