# Consensus ## IronWeave Consensus Mechanisms IronWeave achieves consensus through a unique hybrid mechanism that combines three elements to provide consensus: * IronWeave's unique **Shared-Block Architecture** creates a novel blockchain environment where two or more chains, when creating a shared block, *synchronize their states*. Each shared block also contains a hash from each participant's previous block, creating a three-dimensional graph of hashes that makes the overall fabric more secure with each created block. This ever-expanding hash graph provides a secure, immutable, verifiable and trustless sequencing of block activities that can be authenticated and verified by Validators. * IronWeave uses **Proof of Stake (POS)** for Validators and other node types (such as Manager nodes or Storage nodes) to make participation as a validator accessible and to ensure security. Validators use a special Validator chain to prove their stake and uniquely identify them as validators in the network. As such, a smart contract is not necessary for validators to submit and prove existence of sufficient stake. For on-chain data storage, IronWeave also uses a variation of **Proof of Storage (PoS)** to ensure block that are stored are available, complete, and stored over time. * In addition, IronWeave uses a separate instance of a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol in each IronWeave Zone, to fortify its Shared-Block Architecture with a research-driven, industry-proven, and high performance consensus environment. IronWeave is reviewing, considering and testing various BFT consensus protocols and mechanisms, including the **Mysticeti protocol.** Each Zone in IronWeave operates independently of others, availing each IronWeave Zone to the full performance benefits of a BFT protocol (such as Mysticeti, or others) in terms of latency and throughput. And just as DNS enables interactions on the Internet to occur between and among any domains (like your computer in the .org domain being able to reach and interact with a website in the .com domain), IronWeave chain and block interactions can occur among and between any IronWeave Zones. The BFT protocol implemented for IronWeave will be tuned for the unique Shared-Block environment found in IronWeave.

Performance graph for the Mysticeti protocol, from the research paper found here.

More information on the Mysticeti protocol, including its implementation and performance metrics, can be found in its [published research paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.14821). There are other BFT consensus protocols at various stages of maturity, performance, and capability, each of which will be considered for the best use in IronWeave {% hint style="info" %} During Testnet phase, IronWeave will evaluate various underlying consensus mechanisms for considerations such as robustness, security, scalability, interoperability with the IronWeave core code base, development flexibility, and alignment with future capabilities and services. {% endhint %} ## IronWeave Consensus Summary So we have established that the Shared-Block Architecture of IronWeave enables parallel block creation, which means many blocks can be created simultaneously (in parallel) which vastly improves performance and removes the bottleneck of existing monolithic blockchains. We also established that IronWeave's architecture enables horizontal scale, which means increasing the capacity of the fabric by truly decentralizing the work associated with creating blocks and disseminating among many resources, rather than enduring the constraints of a central or centralized gateway to approve or complete any element of the work. IronWeave's consensus mechanisms further those elements, by leveraging its Shared-Block Architecture to enable state synchronization to happen between independent chains whenever a shared block is created, on a more atomic and efficient scale. In addition, using Proof of Stake and a multitude of validators, combined with an efficient consensus protocol, greatly lowers the barriers for validators to participate in IronWeave, thus vastly furthering true decentralization and the underlying security that accompanies a system that is actively designed to avoid and subvert capitalistic aggregation (i.e., those with more money hoarding the validators or hash rates). And lastly, by using a research-driven and industry-proven consensus protocol that best matches IronWeave's strengths, flexibility, and uses, IronWeave strengthens the security and trustless nature of the fabric with an openly available and scrutinized system that, with IronWeave Zones, can elegantly and robustly implement the low-level consensus and multi-Zone horizontal scalability that IronWeave's architecture uniquely employs. Next, we talk more about those zones, and see how independent and multiple instances of a BFT consensus protocol start to stack up. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.ironweave.io/scalability/consensus.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.