SKALE Consensus: a Blockchain Consensus engine in C++

SKALE Consensus is an ultra-high-performance blockchain consensus engine written in C++.

Key Features of SKALE Consensus

• Over 10,000 TPS
• Byzantine fault tolerant — no block gaps, and stable performance even with up to 1/3 of nodes offline
• Provably secure
• Forkless
• Single-block finality — blocks are immediately finalized upon commitment
• Resilient to arbitrarily long network disruptions and delays through an asynchronous network model
• Multiple block proposers per block — ensures protocol stability even when some proposers are offline
• Secure against MEV and front-running — provably resistant to manipulation

Read the spec for more exciting features https://docs.skale.network/technology/consensus-spec

See visualization of live conseneus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NGCSRjjPkk

Building from Source

The preferred build and execution environment is Ubuntu 22.04.

Later versions of Ubuntu may work, but they are not officially tested.

1. Install packages

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -yq libprocps-dev gcc-11 g++-11 valgrind gawk sed libffi-dev ccache \
    libgoogle-perftools-dev yasm texinfo autotools-dev automake \
    python3 python3-pip cmake libtool build-essential pkg-config autoconf wget \
    git libargtable2-dev libmicrohttpd-dev libhiredis-dev redis-server openssl \
    libssl-dev doxygen libgcrypt20-dev

2. Clone the repo

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/skalenetwork/skale-consensus.git

3. Build dependencies in debug mode

cd skale-consensus/deps && ./build.sh DEBUG=1

4. Configure the CMake build in Debug M ode.

cd .. && cmake . -Bbuild -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

5. Build All Targets Using All Available CPU Code

cmake --build build -- -j$(nproc) 

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Testing

SKALE Consensus includes comprehensive test suites covering unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end scenarios.

Quick Test Run

After building, you can run a basic test:

cd test/onenode
sudo NO_ULIMIT_CHECK=1 TEST_TIME_S=60 TEST_TRANSACTIONS_PER_BLOCK=10 ../../build/consensust [consensus-basic]

Running Specific Tests

Tests are organized with a multi-dimensional tagging system:

# Run RLP unit tests that only test correctness (ignores safety and performance tests)
./build/consensust [rlp][unit][correctness]

# Run all crypto tests
./build/consensust [crypto]

# Run performance tests
./build/consensust [performance]

Multi-Node Testing

For more detailed testing scenarios, including 4-node and 16-node tests with SGX simulation, see our comprehensive Testing Guide.

The testing guide covers:

• Detailed test organization and tagging
• SGX simulation setup with Docker
• Performance testing procedures

Contributing

If you have any questions please ask our development community on Discord.

License

Copyright (C) 2018-present SKALE Labs