Emirati-based blockchain Bahamut goes live with PoSA consensus

Bitcoin (BTC) launched with the ideal technology for the era it was introduced in. Proof-of-work (PoW), the underlying consensus that predated the first cryptocurrency, provides a self-sustaining mechanism where many miners around the world can contribute to verification of BTC transactions.

As the crypto ecosystem expanded and more use cases were brought to life, the PoW mechanism began to show its limitations, such as extensive energy consumption and slow transaction processing times. Blockchain networks that focus on building an ecosystem rather than addressing just one specific use case, such as Ethereum, have adopted the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, where verified stake in the ecosystem is critical to the security of the network.

The dawn of the Web3 era, where a large number of businesses established themselves purely on blockchain, brought a diverse set of user needs. This revolution comes with an addressable market, including aspects such as non-fungible tokens (NFT), blockchain games, digital identities and social media platforms. Given the variety of use cases that can benefit from blockchain technology, even the PoS consensus mechanism began to show the need for further adjustments.

A new blockchain fit for the Web3 era

The latest innovation in the development of blockchain technology presented itself as the proof-of-stake-and-activity (PoSA) consensus mechanism. Developed by the Web3-powered ecosystem Fastex with the needs of Web3 businesses and users in mind, PoSA adds activity as an additional layer of security to the widely adopted PoS consensus mechanism.

Fastex introduced the first PoSA-based blockchain, called Bahamut Chain, whose mainnet was launched on May 3. Inspired by the mythological sea monster that supported the Earth, Bahamut Chain provides a reliable foundation for Web3 companies and decentralized applications (DApps) that want to become part of the growing Fastex ecosystem.

With the Sahara mainnet launch, the complete suite of Web3 products within the Fastex ecosystem, including the ftNFT marketplace, Fastex Verse and FastexPay, will be migrated to the Bahamut chain, and the Fasttoken (FTN) will become the native currency of the entire ecosystem.

Fastex’s wide selection of DApps within its extensive Web3 ecosystem Source: Fastex

How to become a validator on a PoSA blockchain

Validators, users who ensure the security and sustainability of a blockchain by verifying transactions on the chain, must stake at least 8,192 FTN to be eligible for election. The Bahamut chain has an execution layer (Caravan) and a consensus layer (Bedouin) on the Sahara network, so users must run both execution and consensus clients and set up a node to become a validator.

While PoS validators are selected based on the amount of crypto staked, PoSA selects validators based on not only their staked crypto, but also the level of smart contract activity on the blockchain. Therefore, validators have incentives to validate transactions correctly. To keep validators’ work in check, the PoSA blockchain also has a penalty mechanism that punishes malicious actions by confiscating staked crypto.

The key features of Fastex’s new PoSA blockchain. Source: Fastex

Once they become a validator, users can earn activity rewards for their transaction validations in addition to the annual effort rewards. Activity rewards are based on how much gas is used and how many validators are active on the blockchain.

Businesses can develop their DApps on the Bahamut chain with fast transactions and better scalability while benefiting from the same effort and activity rewards in the meantime. By adding activity rewards to incentivize validators, Fastex aims to provide a secure and sustainable blockchain that serves as the underlying technology for a thriving Web3 ecosystem.