Status quo

Since the emergence of blockchains, their core ideology has focused on being decentralized systems for asset transfers and serving as non-custodial asset ledgers. A primary design focus has been addressing the double-spending problem, which is still widely believed to require a strong consensus mechanism among all validators and full nodes of a protocol. This assumption has shaped protocols like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and others, which rely on Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus or its scaled derivatives, such as Solana's Tower BFT and MonadBFT.

While crucial for decentralized networks, censorship resistance with fast inclusion guarantees are often missing in many existing chain architectures and widely used consensus protocols. In leader-based protocols like Ethereum, the leader (or block builder) has the monopoly power to choose which transactions are included in a new block. This control empowers timing games, maximal extractable value (MEV), and incentivizes vertical integrations among transaction supply chain operators, introducing points of centralization and censorship.

Introduction into Consensusless networks

Since transaction-independent asset transfers do not need to be processed in a specific order, transaction-dependent transfers or operations, like asset swaps, require total transaction ordering and generally rely on consensus. However, in recent years, multiple research efforts have recognized this issue, leading individuals and companies to develop systems that utilize consistent and reliable broadcast methods along with consensusless mechanisms. Notable examples include Sui's Lutris, FastPay, and AT2 (Asynchronous Trustworthy Transfers). These approaches have emerged in the R&D of "consensusless" systems, which are decentralized and censorship-resistant alternatives to traditional networks and do not require global consensus to transfer assets. Those networks bypass the high costs of traditional BFT mechanisms while achieving low-latency performance akin to Web2 systems, without compromising on decentralization or censorship resistance. However, Ethereum and its ecosystem of rollups still rely on slow and costly consensus mechanisms for processing data, a well-known bottleneck for the network.

Expensive consensus overhead is a well-known bottleneck in blockchain systems. Various solutions have been proposed, such as Tendermint, Hotshot and scaled derivatives of existing BFT consensus protocols, to mitigate this issue. These solutions compete on speed, cost, scalability, security, and distribution, but still rely on global consensus. As a result, most of them require tradeoffs on properties like decentralization, slow finality or cost. Consensusless architectures address costly settlement and finality issues by bypassing consensus to deliver a highly efficient, scalable architecture that empowers high - performance, consensusless applications.

Consensus isn't required for all on-chain transactions. On average, over 50% of transactions on Ethereum (~ 600k daily) are transfer, accounting for approximately 30% of fees generated, yet they don't actually require full consensus to be processed, creating a bottleneck to scale them and accrue more protocol revenue - yes, for the L1. While bypassing traditional consensus can enable low-latency transaction confirmation and finality, all by maintaining network decentralization and censorship resistance, Ethereum and its rollups still process transfers/payment transactions through slow consensus mechanisms.

Must every transaction need to be processed in a total order? 
Consider two payment transactions

1. Alice pays Bob
2. Charlie pays Dave

Since these payments are independent, they can be executed in any order. They are commutative, meaning the order of execution does not affect the resulting state - it remains the same regardless of which transaction is processed first.

However, to maintain the first principles of blockchain and prevent potential fraudulent actions like double-spending, validators sign valid transactions independently, only based on the datasets they receive and view, rather than agreeing on a global order. A transaction is finalized once it has received independent signatures (a certificate) from more than two-thirds of the validators - assuming less than one-third are malicious. Validators sign only the first transaction receive. As a result, when about to finalize a transaction, only the transaction containing a certificate will count as valid. In the potential event of a double spending attempt, only the certificate holding transaction will be accepted.

Conclusion

Addressing scalability challenges could unlock a transformative wave of innovation, attracting EVM developers and encouraging users to embrace more efficient, scalable blockchain applications. By eliminating the bottlenecks that currently limit mass adoption, scalable infrastructure can drive exponential growth across blockchain ecosystems. Consensusless protocols offer the essential foundation to capture the majority of such transactions, providing unparalleled scalability for developers while preserving the core principles of blockchain technology. These protocols ensure decentralization, security, and censorship resistance, empowering developers to build applications capable of serving millions without compromise. This shift will not only empower developers but also propel blockchain toward achieving mainstream adoption across industries.

Status quo

Since the emergence of blockchains, their core ideology has focused on being decentralized systems for asset transfers and serving as non-custodial asset ledgers. A primary design focus has been addressing the double-spending problem, which is still widely believed to require a strong consensus mechanism among all validators and full nodes of a protocol. This assumption has shaped protocols like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and others, which rely on Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus or its scaled derivatives, such as Solana's Tower BFT and MonadBFT.

While crucial for decentralized networks, censorship resistance with fast inclusion guarantees are often missing in many existing chain architectures and widely used consensus protocols. In leader-based protocols like Ethereum, the leader (or block builder) has the monopoly power to choose which transactions are included in a new block. This control empowers timing games, maximal extractable value (MEV), and incentivizes vertical integrations among transaction supply chain operators, introducing points of centralization and censorship.

Introduction into Consensusless networks

Since transaction-independent asset transfers do not need to be processed in a specific order, transaction-dependent transfers or operations, like asset swaps, require total transaction ordering and generally rely on consensus. However, in recent years, multiple research efforts have recognized this issue, leading individuals and companies to develop systems that utilize consistent and reliable broadcast methods along with consensusless mechanisms. Notable examples include Sui's Lutris, FastPay, and AT2 (Asynchronous Trustworthy Transfers). These approaches have emerged in the R&D of "consensusless" systems, which are decentralized and censorship-resistant alternatives to traditional networks and do not require global consensus to transfer assets. Those networks bypass the high costs of traditional BFT mechanisms while achieving low-latency performance akin to Web2 systems, without compromising on decentralization or censorship resistance. However, Ethereum and its ecosystem of rollups still rely on slow and costly consensus mechanisms for processing data, a well-known bottleneck for the network.

Expensive consensus overhead is a well-known bottleneck in blockchain systems. Various solutions have been proposed, such as Tendermint, Hotshot and scaled derivatives of existing BFT consensus protocols, to mitigate this issue. These solutions compete on speed, cost, scalability, security, and distribution, but still rely on global consensus. As a result, most of them require tradeoffs on properties like decentralization, slow finality or cost. Consensusless architectures address costly settlement and finality issues by bypassing consensus to deliver a highly efficient, scalable architecture that empowers high - performance, consensusless applications.

Consensus isn't required for all on-chain transactions. On average, over 50% of transactions on Ethereum (~ 600k daily) are transfer, accounting for approximately 30% of fees generated, yet they don't actually require full consensus to be processed, creating a bottleneck to scale them and accrue more protocol revenue - yes, for the L1. While bypassing traditional consensus can enable low-latency transaction confirmation and finality, all by maintaining network decentralization and censorship resistance, Ethereum and its rollups still process transfers/payment transactions through slow consensus mechanisms.

Must every transaction need to be processed in a total order? 
Consider two payment transactions

1. Alice pays Bob
2. Charlie pays Dave

Since these payments are independent, they can be executed in any order. They are commutative, meaning the order of execution does not affect the resulting state - it remains the same regardless of which transaction is processed first.

However, to maintain the first principles of blockchain and prevent potential fraudulent actions like double-spending, validators sign valid transactions independently, only based on the datasets they receive and view, rather than agreeing on a global order. A transaction is finalized once it has received independent signatures (a certificate) from more than two-thirds of the validators - assuming less than one-third are malicious. Validators sign only the first transaction receive. As a result, when about to finalize a transaction, only the transaction containing a certificate will count as valid. In the potential event of a double spending attempt, only the certificate holding transaction will be accepted.

Conclusion

Addressing scalability challenges could unlock a transformative wave of innovation, attracting EVM developers and encouraging users to embrace more efficient, scalable blockchain applications. By eliminating the bottlenecks that currently limit mass adoption, scalable infrastructure can drive exponential growth across blockchain ecosystems. Consensusless protocols offer the essential foundation to capture the majority of such transactions, providing unparalleled scalability for developers while preserving the core principles of blockchain technology. These protocols ensure decentralization, security, and censorship resistance, empowering developers to build applications capable of serving millions without compromise. This shift will not only empower developers but also propel blockchain toward achieving mainstream adoption across industries.