tendermint/docs/specification/new-spec/consensus.md

Tendermint Consensus

Tendermint consensus is a distributed protocol executed by validator processes to agree on the next block to be added to the Tendermint blockchain. The protocol proceeds in rounds, where each round is a try to reach agreement on the next block. A round starts by having a dedicated process (called proposer) suggesting to other processes what should be the next block with the ProposalMessage. The processes respond by voting for a block with VoteMessage (there are two kinds of vote messages, prevote and precommit votes). Note that a proposal message is just a suggestion what the next block should be; a validator might vote with a VoteMessage for a different block. If in some round, enough number of processes vote for the same block, then this block is committed and later added to the blockchain. ProposalMessage and VoteMessage are signed by the private key of the validator. The internals of the protocol and how it ensures safety and liveness properties are explained here.

For efficiency reasons, validators in Tendermint consensus protocol do not agree directly on the block as the block size is big, i.e., they don't embed the block inside Proposal and VoteMessage. Instead, they reach agreement on the BlockID (see BlockID definition in Blockchain section) that uniquely identifies each block. The block itself is disseminated to validator processes using peer-to-peer gossiping protocol. It starts by having a proposer first splitting a block into a number of block parts, that are then gossiped between processes using BlockPartMessage.

Validators in Tendermint communicate by peer-to-peer gossiping protocol. Each validator is connected only to a subset of processes called peers. By the gossiping protocol, a validator send to its peers all needed information (ProposalMessage, VoteMessage and BlockPartMessage) so they can reach agreement on some block, and also obtain the content of the chosen block (block parts). As part of the gossiping protocol, processes also send auxiliary messages that inform peers about the executed steps of the core consensus algorithm (NewRoundStepMessage and CommitStepMessage), and also messages that inform peers what votes the process has seen (HasVoteMessage, VoteSetMaj23Message and VoteSetBitsMessage). These messages are then used in the gossiping protocol to determine what messages a process should send to its peers.

We now describe the content of each message exchanged during Tendermint consensus protocol.

ProposalMessage

ProposalMessage is sent when a new block is proposed. It is a suggestion of what the next block in the blockchain should be.

type ProposalMessage struct {
	Proposal Proposal
}

Proposal

Proposal contains height and round for which this proposal is made, BlockID as a unique identifier of proposed block, timestamp, and two fields (POLRound and POLBlockID) that are needed for termination of the consensus. The message is signed by the validator private key.

type Proposal struct {
	Height           int64            
	Round            int              
	Timestamp        Time        
	BlockID          BlockID      
	POLRound         int              
	POLBlockID       BlockID          
	Signature        Signature 
}

NOTE: In the current version of the Tendermint, the consensus value in proposal is represented with PartSetHeader, and with BlockID in vote message. It should be aligned as suggested in this spec as BlockID contains PartSetHeader.

VoteMessage

VoteMessage is sent to vote for some block (or to inform others that a process does not vote in the current round). Vote is defined in Blockchain section and contains validator's information (validator address and index), height and round for which the vote is sent, vote type, blockID if process vote for some block (nil otherwise) and a timestamp when the vote is sent. The message is signed by the validator private key.

type VoteMessage struct {
	Vote Vote
}

BlockPartMessage

BlockPartMessage is sent when gossipping a piece of the proposed block. It contains height, round and the block part.

type BlockPartMessage struct {
	Height int64
	Round  int
	Part   Part
}

ProposalHeartbeatMessage

ProposalHeartbeatMessage is sent to signal that a node is alive and waiting for transactions to be able to create a next block proposal.

type ProposalHeartbeatMessage struct {
    Heartbeat Heartbeat
}

Heartbeat

Heartbeat contains validator information (address and index), height, round and sequence number. It is signed by the private key of the validator.

type Heartbeat struct {
	ValidatorAddress []byte       
	ValidatorIndex   int              
	Height           int64            
	Round            int              
	Sequence         int              
	Signature        Signature 
}

NewRoundStepMessage

NewRoundStepMessage is sent for every step transition during the core consensus algorithm execution. It is used in the gossip part of the Tendermint protocol to inform peers about a current height/round/step a process is in.

type NewRoundStepMessage struct {
	Height                int64
	Round                 int
	Step                  RoundStepType
	SecondsSinceStartTime int
	LastCommitRound       int
}

CommitStepMessage

CommitStepMessage is sent when an agreement on some block is reached. It contains height for which agreement is reached, block parts header that describes the decided block and is used to obtain all block parts, and a bit array of the block parts a process currently has, so its peers can know what parts it is missing so they can send them.

type CommitStepMessage struct {
	Height           int64
	BlockID          BlockID
	BlockParts       BitArray
}

TODO: We use BlockID instead of BlockPartsHeader (in current implementation) for symmetry.

ProposalPOLMessage

ProposalPOLMessage is sent when a previous block is re-proposed. It is used to inform peers in what round the process learned for this block (ProposalPOLRound), and what prevotes for the re-proposed block the process has.

type ProposalPOLMessage struct {
	Height           int64
	ProposalPOLRound int
	ProposalPOL      BitArray
}

HasVoteMessage

HasVoteMessage is sent to indicate that a particular vote has been received. It contains height, round, vote type and the index of the validator that is the originator of the corresponding vote.

type HasVoteMessage struct {
	Height int64
	Round  int
	Type   byte
	Index  int
}

VoteSetMaj23Message

VoteSetMaj23Message is sent to indicate that a process has seen +2/3 votes for some BlockID. It contains height, round, vote type and the BlockID.

type VoteSetMaj23Message struct {
	Height  int64
	Round   int
	Type    byte
	BlockID BlockID
}

VoteSetBitsMessage

VoteSetBitsMessage is sent to communicate the bit-array of votes a process has seen for a given BlockID. It contains height, round, vote type, BlockID and a bit array of the votes a process has.

type VoteSetBitsMessage struct {
	Height  int64
	Round   int
	Type    byte
	BlockID BlockID
	Votes   BitArray
}