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：我们提出卡尔诺（Carnot），一种基于领导者的拜占庭容错（BFT）共识协议，该协议具有响应性且运行于部分同步模型下。响应式BFT共识协议可实现线速运行并提供即时最终性，从而满足分布式系统中的基本需求。扩展这些协议的关键挑战在于与验证器相关的计算复杂性。我们证明，卡尔诺通过巧妙地将每个节点的验证器验证与聚合操作简化为$O(log(N))$，有效解决了这一瓶颈。这一显著进展相比当前最先进的$O(N)$方法实现了重大改进。凭借这一固有特性，卡尔诺展现出无缝扩展至包含数万至数十万个节点网络的能力。我们将卡尔诺视为弥合经典BFT共识机制与区块链技术之间差距的关键一步。