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Ouroboros mini-protocols
Ouroboros mini-protocols are a set of specialized communication protocols designed to support the operation of Ouroboros, the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism used by Cardano. These mini-protocols manage various aspects of communication between nodes, such as block propagation, transaction submission, and chain synchronization, ensuring efficient and secure consensus across the network. By breaking down the interactions…
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Mini-protocols
Mini-protocols on Cardano are lightweight, specialized communication protocols designed to facilitate specific tasks between nodes in the network. These protocols break down the communication between nodes into simpler, modular components, each responsible for a particular aspect of the interaction, such as transaction propagation, block validation, or stake delegation. This modular approach helps to optimize the…
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The 5 Key Dimensions of Scalability in Blockchain Systems: A Cardano Perspective
As blockchain technology continues to grow in popularity and adoption, one of the most critical challenges is scalability—the ability of a blockchain to handle increasing loads of users, transactions, and data without compromising performance, security, or decentralization. Scalability can be broken down into several dimensions that blockchain projects, like Cardano, must address to become viable…
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Eventual Consistency
Eventual consistency is a consistency model used in distributed systems to ensure that, given enough time, all copies of the data across the system will become consistent, even if temporary inconsistencies occur. It guarantees that, after a period of time and in the absence of further updates, all nodes in the system will converge to…
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Amortization
In computer science, amortization refers to analyzing the average performance or cost of an operation over a series of repeated operations. Instead of evaluating the worst-case scenario for every individual operation, amortization spreads out the cost of expensive operations across multiple less costly ones, providing a more accurate estimate of performance over time. Example of…
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k-parameter
The k-parameter on Cardano is a key parameter in its Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism that influences the optimal number of stake pools in the network. It is used to promote decentralization by encouraging ADA holders to delegate their stake to a larger number of independent stake pools, thus preventing centralization around a few dominant pools.…
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Concurrency & Parallelism
As the Cardano blockchain continues to grow and evolve, two key concepts that play an important role in improving performance and scalability are concurrency and parallelism. These are critical for optimizing how transactions are processed, especially as more decentralized applications (dApps) and users interact with the network. However, concurrency and parallelism are often misunderstood, so…
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Big-O Notation
Big-O Notation is a way of describing how the performance (time or space) of an algorithm scales as the size of the input data increases. It tells us how quickly the run-time or memory usage grows as the input size gets larger. Big-O notation focuses on the worst-case scenario to give us an upper bound…
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Orders of Approximation
Orders of Approximation refer to the different levels of accuracy or precision used when estimating or calculating a value. In mathematics, physics, and computing, the first-order approximation is a rough estimate, while higher-order approximations provide more detailed and precise calculations. As you increase the “order” of approximation, you account for more factors and nuances in…
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Orders of Magnitude
Orders of magnitude refer to a way of expressing the scale or size of a number relative to a reference point, typically in powers of ten. Each order of magnitude represents a tenfold difference. For example, if something is one order of magnitude larger than another, it is 10 times larger; if it is two…
