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Why give priority to TPS?

The core performance of the blockchain mainly has three aspects, namely TPS (Transaction per second), second-level block confirmation speed (time to reach consensus), and fork probability. Different main chains will have different emphasis on these three. Some will give priority to TPS, some will give priority to the speed of block generation, and some will pay more attention to the probability of forks.

ThunderChain puts performance at the top of the design, and at the same time has high security, and takes decentralization into account, so as to achieve the balance of the three. Why is performance so important? Because Xunlei has always regarded blockchain as one of the basic services of the Internet, it needs to be applied in different scenarios in the future. Application scenarios are ever-changing, especially large-scale business scenarios that require extremely high concurrent processing capabilities. For example, e-commerce scenarios require hundreds of thousands of TPS. Considering the growing demand of the Internet of Things in the future, a million-level TPS may not be enough.

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Why choose PBFT for consensus?

The consensus mechanism adopted by ThunderChain is PBFT, which is a consensus mechanism with outstanding advantages in fault tolerance rate. The blockchain digital bill trading platform launched by the central bank uses the optimized PBFT algorithm.

Legend: Schematic diagram of PBFT structure

Compared with traditional consensus mechanisms such as POW and POS, PBFT can solve the bifurcation problem very well, and at the same time improve efficiency, the speed of block generation can also be greatly improved, and all aspects of realization are more perfect.

The adoption of the PBFT mechanism by ThunderChain is also based on this point, and the reason is still to consider the needs of the actual application. Because in many actual business scenarios, it is difficult for users to accept rollback operations. Block rollback corresponds to real life, that is, transaction cancellation and invalidation, which obviously does not conform to the normal transaction experience of users. In addition, practical commercial applications cannot accept blockchain forks. Therefore, the PBFT mechanism with strong consistency and non-fork is the best choice.

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Why add peripheral assistance systems?

During the development process, ThunderChain noticed that many traditional enterprises encountered many problems when they came into contact with the blockchain. Typically, these companies have extremely high barriers to entry when using blockchain technology, and relevant talents are scarce. In fact, this is also an important reason why blockchain technology is difficult to implement.

To this end, Thunderchain has added a large number of peripheral auxiliary systems to the architecture, mainly focusing on the service layer of Thunderchain, such as contract standards and template libraries, transaction order systems, Thunderchain file systems, etc., hoping to reduce the use of traditional enterprises. The threshold of blockchain technology promotes the development and popularization of blockchain applications. At the same time, it can also allow enterprises to focus on their own business level, without being occupied by the underlying technology of the blockchain.

Although these peripheral auxiliary systems have many functions, they adhere to the same design idea in terms of process, that is, it is hoped that enterprises can access the blockchain system with their own mature processes, so that the blockchain can adapt to business, rather than allowing enterprises to modify existing Business processes to adapt to the blockchain. In terms of development rhythm, we also maintain the pace of "use first, then optimize and then change", and realize the perfect operation of the entire process step by step.

Zhang Huiyong said in the exchange that ThunderChain has always believed that the blockchain is not only a technological change, but also a change in production relations, and the protagonist is the enterprise. As the underlying main chain, ThunderChain hopes to ease the burden on these enterprises when using new technologies.

Zhang Huiyong found that as more and more enterprises invest in blockchain technology, ThunderChain continues to strengthen active cooperation with customers. It can be intuitively felt that cooperation ideas are becoming clearer and enterprises are more aware of the implementation of blockchain technology. Applications are also more pragmatic. With the gradual enrichment of the service layer of the ThunderChain and the improvement of the development ecology, the transformation of enterprises to the blockchain is more convenient and practical.