Ouroboros Phalanx: How Cardano Will Cut Settlement Times by 30%

• Cardano’s upcoming Phalanx upgrade aims to cut transaction settlement times by up to 30%.
• The upgrade strengthens Ouroboros, making randomness generation resistant to manipulation.
• It enhances Cardano’s performance, fairness, and long-term scalability.

Cardano is preparing to introduce its Phalanx upgrade, a major step in improving the blockchain’s speed and security. 

The network, long known for its academic approach and engineering discipline, has maintained its focus on balancing decentralization, scalability, and sustainability.

With Phalanx, Cardano intends to reduce settlement times by nearly 30% while reinforcing the security of its core consensus protocol, Ouroboros. Ouroboros has remained central to Cardano’s structure since its inception.

As one of the first peer-reviewed proof-of-stake protocols, it has shaped blockchain consensus mechanisms across the industry. 

The new Phalanx iteration represents an evolution of this foundation, aiming to make Cardano’s leader selection process mathematically fair and immune to manipulation attempts.

Phalanx modifies how randomness, used to decide block producers, is created. It employs Wesolowski’s verifiable delay function to ensure that randomness cannot be influenced or predicted by large stakeholders.

By extending this process across two epochs, Phalanx guarantees that every participant has an equal opportunity, securing Cardano’s network integrity as it scales for broader adoption.

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Addressing Grinding Attacks in Proof-of-Stake

The Phalanx upgrade addresses a long-standing issue in proof-of-stake networks, referred to as grinding attacks. This takes place when network participants attempt to affect the generation of random numbers in order to increase their odds of being selected as block leaders.

The issue is resolved in Phalanx by the use of verifiable delay functions, making manipulation unfeasible. Honest parties can check the proof in a matter of seconds, while a malicious party would incur extreme costs.

The result is a fair, fast, and secure network. This update also enables Cardano to reduce block settlement times by a significant 20% to 30% without impacting the security system.

For the user, this means quicker transaction validation. For stake pool managers, it means a more balanced representation in leadership, so as to prevent a concentration of power in any single entity. For everyone, it means Cardano’s continued dedication to a transparent blockchain.

Cardano Public Test Network Rollout Planned

The Phalanx upgrade has moved past both the design and security review phases. The tech validation phase, which involves testing the protocol by engineers to make sure everything works well in all stake pools, is underway.

Once it is completed, it will be released on Cardano’s public testing environment, where it will be tested for functionality and equalities, pending a vote on mainnet activation.

Another improvement on the horizon, launched via Cardano’s hard fork combinator, Phalanx, aims to advance the state of transaction finality.

This enables future updates, such as Peras and Leios, to build on solid progress, prioritizing scalability, higher transaction rates, and faster consensus.

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