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The Mainchain: A Secure Foundation for the Ecosystem

The Elastos mainchain is a completely open-source and sovereign blockchain protocol based on Bitcoin that provides cryptographic proofs and a secure foundation for the ecosystem.

Elastic Consensus

The mainchain leverages a combination of three consensus mechanisms to ensure robust transaction execution:

Auxiliary Proof of Work

Auxiliary Proof of Work (AuXPoW) is a mechanisn wherein Bitcoin miners compete to produce blocks for the Elastos mainchain in return for ELA. The security benefits of Bitcoin are integrated into solutions through merged-mining. The mainchain uses a PoW consensus mechanism based on SHA256, with blocks produced approximately every 2 minutes and 8 MB in size, compared to Bitcoin's 10-minute blocks and 1 MB size limit.

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Note: The mainchain's role is limited to serving as a root of trust, so transaction throughput is not a primary concern. Scalability is achieved through the use of sidechains.

Bonded Proof of Stake

Bonded Proof of Stake (BPoS) is a hybrid consensus mechanism that blends elements of delegated proof of stake and proof of stake. It offers the following benefits:

  • Variable bonding time
  • Improved profit share model
  • Increased mobility between inactive and active sets
  • Secure block finality

On the mainchain, BPoS provides finality for PoW-solved blocks, while on sidechains it is responsible for both block production and validation.

Proof of Integrity

Proof of Integrity is a moniker given to the consensus layer backed by the Cyber Republic, Elastos' decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Councilors elected on an annual basis are automatically granted a slot in the block production rotation and participate in securing not only the mainchain, but also validate the sidechains and act as arbiters for cross-chain transfers.

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By combining these three consensus mechanisms, the mainchain provides a secure and efficient foundation for decentralized applications.

ResourceDescription
ExplorerMainchain block explorer
APIsCLI, JSON-RPC and REST API interfaces
GithubMainchain source code
WhitepaperOriginal whitepaper