Moonshot: Optimizing Chain-Based Rotating Leader BFT via Optimistic Proposals

Existing chain-based rotating leader BFT SMR protocols for the partially synchronous network model that commit blocks with $O(1)$ minimum latency have block periods of at least $2\delta$ (where $\delta$ is the message transmission latency). While a protocol with a block period of $\delta$ exists under the synchronous model, its minimum commit latency is linear in the size of the system. To close this gap, we present the first chain-based BFT SMR protocols with best-case delays of $\delta$ between the proposals of distinct honest leaders, and minimum commit latencies of $3\delta$. We present three protocols for the partially synchronous network model under different notions of optimistic responsiveness, two of which implement pipelining and one of which does not. All of our protocols achieve reorg resilience and two have short view lengths; properties that many existing chain-based BFT SMR protocols lack. We experimentally evaluate our protocols and show that they achieve significant increases in throughput and reductions in latency compared to the state-of-the-art, Jolteon. Our results also demonstrate that techniques commonly employed to reduce communication complexity$\unicode{x2014}$such as vote-pipelining and the use of designated vote-aggregators$\unicode{x2014}$actually reduce practical performance in many settings.