The overall architecture of Ethanim is similar to the blockchain system with multiple application chains. The main chain is responsible for the security of all “application chains”, and it is also the Layer 2 of Ethereum or other public blockchains, supporting pluggable cross-chain methods such as Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK-rollup) and Optimistic Rollup (ORs). The Layer 1 public blockchain strengths and guarantees the security of the main chain.
The main chain nodes consist of “consensus node” and “validator node”.
Consensus Node
The Consensus Node is responsible for maintaining the operation of the main chain, storing the blockchain ledger, and supporting EVM-compatible virtual machines. Developers can seamlessly migrate smart contracts deployed on Ethereum and issue tokens of ERC20 and ERC721 protocol standards, and get an extremely fast and zero-cost transaction experience. By executing the VRF algorithm, the consensus node randomly assigns validators to perform trusted validation in the RSM and decides whether the RSM can continue to run and whether the state snapshot can continue to be output based on the validation result.
The Heterogeneous Consensus Graph (HCGraph) algorithm of the Trias Leviatom network is applied to the consensus nodes, which combines heterogeneous TEE technologies (TPM, TXT, Intel SGX, ARM TrustZone, etc.) with graph computation algorithms (similar to Hashgraph or DAG). Heterogeneous TEE allows Leviatom to quickly identify misbehaving nodes while eliminating dependencies on any single technology provider, such as Intel SGX-based consensus strongly relying on Intel’s centralized online validation service. At the same time, HCGraph’s gossip protocol significantly reduces redundant TEE validation while retaining a scalable and robust trusted network.
Unlike consensus acceleration techniques on top of the consensus layer (e.g., Layer 1 or Layer 2 improvements), Leviatom improves the performance by tapping one layer “below” the consensus layer: Layer -1 enhancement. Layer -1 focuses on building trust relationships between voting nodes. It is mainly designed to identify the set of nodes that are most difficult to “lie”, i.e., the difficulty of executing an unexpected procedure without being identified. It also solves the problem of managing redundancy in performing remote proofs between nodes by introducing the transitive trust relationship matrix with the mathematical multifaction operation, through which Leviatom only needs to select a few nodes with the highest values as voting nodes to perform consensus procedures on target transactions, which greatly improves consensus efficiency.
Meanwhile, the consensus node packages the hash index of the application snapshot file into the blockchain ledger and will assume the retrieval of the application snapshot in the eternal file system when it receives an application recovery request.
Validator
The validator can be installed and deployed by anyone on servers, laptops, or even cell phones at a low cost. They stake tokens for heartbeat connection and trusted verification and achieve consensus for the RSM, and the number of validators can be scaled up at any time according to demand, which can cope with the security needs of any scale application.
Validation Operator: The validation operator who is responsible for the node validation is also a “virtual miner” in the Ethanim system and signs and votes on the trusted state of the RSM, and these votes are recorded on the main chain, which mainly records the address and the state of the validation operator as well as the address of RSM being validated. The validation operators need to register with the main chain to activate.
Committee: The committee is a subset of dynamic validators randomly assigned by a verifiable random function (VRF) running on the main chain, with the assignment results verifiable locally by the validator but hidden from the network, which avoids attacks. Each subset performs consensus voting on the RSM in the network. To enhance security, only votes that exceed a security threshold for the number of validators are recognized by the main chain, otherwise, multiple rounds of voting will be performed.
Validation period: The committee members are not fixed and will be replaced periodically. The time of each turnover is called a validation period. The validation period is set to a reasonable length in order to ensure that the validation of the subset can reach consensus effectively and avoid that the validators within the subset have time to collude and do evil. Validators can verify each other and perform challenge proofs to obtain rewards.
More about Ethanim:
Website: https://www.ethanim.network/
Whitepapers（EN）: https://docs.ethanim.network/en/wp/id
Whitepapers（JP）: https://docs.ethanim.network/whitepaper_jp/
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Uzkat3zarz
Telegram（ANN）:https://t.me/EthanimOfficial
Telegram（EN）: https://t.me/Ethanim_Network
Telegram（JP）: https://t.me/ethanimjp
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ethanim_Network
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ethanimnetwork/
YouTube：https://www.youtube.com/c/EthanimNetwork
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethanimnetwork/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethanimnetwork/
