VeChain Upgrades to Proof of Authority Consensus

• The popular supply chain network “VeChain” ($VET) has updated its consensus protocol to a proof of authority system that it claims is “the world’s greenest” method of approving blocks to the chain.

• On Tuesday Vechain began the process of upgrading its VeChainThor mainnet where it will adopt a proof of authority (PoA) 2.0 SURFACE consensus algorithm. The upgrade aims to improve scalability, security, and throughput on the mainnet.

• PoA and PoS (proof of stake) differ from proof of work (mining) systems in that they do not use mining to reach network consensus, which is essentially the process of adding new blocks of information to the chain. PoA achieves consensus by verifying the validators identity while PoS allows validators to stake their coins in the network.

• One advantage PoA systems have is that they are much less energy intensive and emit a low amount of carbon compared to proof of work mining. VeChain implied that the new upgrade is “the world’s greenest consensus to drive mass adoption.”

• The upgrade will be made up of 3 major parts according to the announcement. The first is a verifiable randomness function that will securely and randomly assign nodes to produce blocks/process transactions, making them immune to manipulation.

• The second is a committee endorsed process of producing blocks that will significantly reduce the chance of a network fork. Forks can impede network processing speeds as validators disagree on the set rules to abide by on the network.

• The third part is a passive block finality confirmation process to help ensure new blocks are finalized even if all nodes on the network aren’t synchronized.