Scaling Through Reductionism

Consensus Mechanism

In X1 Blockchain, transactions progress through multiple stages:

1. Execution – The leader executes the transaction and records it in its ledger.
2. Propagation – The transaction is shared across the network.
3. Confirmation – A block is confirmed once it gathers enough votes.
4. Finalization – A block is finalized after 31+ confirmed blocks are built on top of it.

These status updates are returned via RPC, allowing users to track their transactions in real time.

Continuous vs. Discrete Block Building

Most blockchains construct entire blocks before broadcasting them (discrete block building).
Solana, however, uses continuous block building, streaming blocks dynamically in real time.
This reduces latency and speeds up transaction finalization.

To achieve consensus:

• ✅ The leader breaks the block into shreds (smaller data pieces).
• ✅ Validators reconstruct the block by verifying Proof of History (PoH) hashes and transaction validity.
• ✅ Validators vote on valid blocks.
• ✅ Once a supermajority (66.6%) of validators confirm a block, it is finalized and added to the chain.

This system works efficiently when the network is small but faces scalability challenges as it grows.

Algorithmic Complexity

The Blockchain Scalability Challenge

Scalability, security, and decentralization must be balanced.
Traditional blockchains (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum) struggle with congestion, leading to:

• High fees due to transaction competition.
• Slow confirmations during peak demand.

Bitcoin and Ethereum use Nakamoto-style consensus, which requires high fees to prioritize transactions.

The Quadratic Complexity Problem

Some blockchains, like Solana and Fantom, use asynchronous block voting.
This speeds up transactions but increases consensus complexity to O(n²)—
meaning network efficiency declines as more nodes join.

How Avalanche Solves It

Avalanche introduces neighborhoods, using a gossip-based structure to reduce complexity to O(log(n)).
This keeps transaction speeds high without compromising scalability.

X1 Blockchain: Scaling Through Reductionism

X1 Blockchain enhances consensus efficiency by introducing subcommittee voting, inspired by HotStuff2.

Why This Matters

Traditional blockchains require all nodes to vote, creating an O(n²) bottleneck.
X1 instead selects subcommittees to handle voting, reducing communication overhead.

The Key Advantage

• Instead of every node participating, only a subset (x) of nodes vote.
• This enables constant-time consensus: O(1).
• The network supports unlimited validators while keeping consensus fast and scalable.

By reducing complexity without sacrificing security, X1 achieves high performance, lower latency, and better scalability.