My updates from here on out will follow a very consistent routine of reading research papers and doing discovery on the SSF space by reading through consensus mechanism papers and whatnot. This past week, I focused on the space that evolved from PBFT and subsequently led to HotStuff, HotStuff-2, and Tendermint. The main thing I’ve found to be difficult so far is determining what research papers and areas are on-topic and which ones are more about creating a proof of stake consensus mechanism than having finality. For example, SKALE and SEI both claim to have incredibly fast confirmations, but no finality gadget means that there’s the chance for a reorg or reversal.

Here’s the current state of my knowledge graph. Very happy with how it’s growing!