We present Carnot, a leader-based Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol that is responsive and operates under the partially synchronous model. Responsive BFT consensus protocols exhibit wire-speed operation and deliver instantaneous finality, thereby addressing a fundamental need in distributed systems. A key challenge in scaling these protocols has been the computational complexity associated with authenticator verification. We demonstrate that Carnot effectively addresses this bottleneck by adeptly streamlining the verification and aggregation of O(log(N)) authenticators per node. This notable advancement marks a substantial improvement over the prevailing O(N) state-of-the-art approaches. Leveraging this inherent property, Carnot demonstrates its capacity to seamlessly scale to networks comprising tens to hundreds of thousands of nodes. We envision Carnot as a critical stride towards bridging the gap between classical BFT consensus mechanisms and blockchain technology.

翻译：我们提出卡诺（Carnot），一种基于领导者的拜占庭容错（BFT）共识协议，该协议具有响应性并在部分同步模型下运行。响应性BFT共识协议能够实现线速操作并提供即时最终性，从而满足分布式系统的根本需求。扩展这些协议的一个关键挑战在于与验证器验证相关的计算复杂度。我们证明卡诺通过巧妙优化每个节点的O(log(N))个验证器的验证与聚合过程，有效解决了这一瓶颈问题。这一显著进步相较于当前主流的O(N)方法实现了实质性改进。利用这一固有特性，卡诺展示了其无缝扩展至包含数万至数十万节点网络的能力。我们视卡诺为弥合经典BFT共识机制与区块链技术之间差距的关键一步。