The “Blockchain Trilemma,” which Fantom solves, is a key issue. The blockchain trilemma refers to the inability to strike a balance between speed, security and decentralization at the same time. Fantom uses a permissionless protocol and aBFT to process transactions asynchronously to accomplish decentralization and security, which speeds up the whole process.
Fantom’s DAG-based asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance (aBFT) algorithm, Lachesis, outperforms both the Classical and Nakamoto models. Lachesis is a more efficient, scalable and secure alternative that allows developers to create peer-to-peer apps without building their own networking layer.
Lachesis is asynchronous, meaning that participants can process commands at their own pace. Furthermore, there is no leader and no one plays a “special” function. Additionally, Lachesis is Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT), which means it can achieve consensus in the presence of problematic nodes, including malicious activity. Finally, Lachesis’ output is immediately usable. Transactions are confirmed in 1–2 seconds; thus, there’s no need to wait for block confirmations.
Peer-to-peer networking and a DAG aBFT consensus algorithm are used to connect Lachesis to other Lachesis nodes to ensure that the same commands are processed in the exact order. The same event is repeated in different elections, resulting in a lesser number of created consensus messages. As a result, compared to synchronous BFT, Lachesis achieves a faster time to finality and a lower communication overhead.