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Background

Traditional blockchains like Ethereum operate by coming to consensus over ordering and replicated execution of transactions. Step-by-step, it looks something like:
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Block proposer elected

A leader, more commonly referred to as a block proposer, is elected to extend the chain by proposing a block (today, via stake-weighted pseudo-random selection).This block proposer collects transactions from both public and private transaction pools (using by running a sidecar like mev-boost), builds a valid block according to protocol rules, and broadcasts it to the rest of the network.
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Validator re-execution

Next, all validators in the network receive the new head block from the block proposer and re-execute the block locally, via their execution clients, to determine block validity.Today, in Ethereum (via the official specification), this involves asserting:
  1. A block header is valid
  2. All transaction(s) are valid by their validity rules
  3. The sum of transaction gasLimit(s) do not exceed the block gasLimit
  4. A block’s stateRoot matches a local stateRoot after executing all transactions
  5. …and similar txsRoot, withdrawalsHash, ommersHash, and other checks
Notice, in step 4, that Ethereum validators, irrespective of their hardware or specifications, must be capable of executing all Ethereum transactions.
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Achieving consensus

Finally, validators that have re-executed and asserted validity of a new head block publish their votes in favour of the block.Via the fork choice rule, all correct nodes eventually agree on a common view of the canonical chain, finalizing a block to Ethereum state.

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Limitations

Today, the Ethereum Virtual Machine is purposefully limited in the types, computational complexity, and cost of operations it supports. In part, this is because of a conflict in Ethereum’s architecture demanding each node execute all transactions, yet prohibitively low minimum requirements to run a node, optimized for the long-tail of residential validators. Commonly, proposals to improve chain performance or enable net-new user functionality are met with pushback to preserve the minimum requirements. Namely, this results in:
  1. Only supporting limited, homogeneous computation optimized for the weakest node
  2. Best-case chain performance dependent on worst-case node performance
  3. No user preference over compute execution; all nodes paid the same irrespective of hardware, capabilities, or performance

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Optimized Architecture

Ritual Chain introduces node specialization through architecture purpose-built for reducing redundant re-execution and enabling user preference:
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Symphony reduces replicated execution

Symphony is a new consensus protocol leveraging dual proof sharding, distributed verification, and optimal sampling to reduce replicated execution.At core, the principle behind Symphony is to execute-once-verify-many-times. Single nodes are selected for transaction execution (via Resonance). In addition to generating execution outputs, these nodes also generate succinct computation proofs.In place of transaction re-execution by all validators, subsets of nodes now verify succinct proofs and broadcast transaction validity, with the network collectively reaching execution consensus.Via Symphony, re-execution is made redundant, with nodes free to service just their specialized computation, while still participating in validating the network.

Symphony

Read more about Symphony—Ritual’s new consensus protocol.
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Resonance enables user preference

Resonance is a new, state-of-the-art fee mechanism built for heterogeneous compute.Traditional blockchains like Ethereum:
  1. Inefficiently price unique resources (computation, storage, etc.) as identical
  2. Force users to pay fees subsidizing transaction re-execution across all nodes
  3. Limit users from expressing their execution preferences
Resonance is a two-sided marketplace to match heterogeneous transactions to heterogeneous nodes.Via Resonance, users can express their preferences to prioritize cost or speed, with transactions efficiently matched to specialized execution nodes.

Resonance

Read more about Resonance—Ritual’s state-of-the-art fee market design.

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Benefits

Via this architecture, Ritual Chain is the most expressive blockchain in existence, built to meet the demands of complex on-chain applications and enable net-new user functionality:
  1. Node specialization optimizes network performance, allowing for smoother, more tailored processing across different workloads.
  2. Nodes are rewarded based on their unique computational strengths, creating a diverse ecosystem that incentivizes both high-performance and resource-constrained participants to join and contribute effectively.
  3. Users gain flexibility, with options to prioritize cost or speed based on their preferences.