Smart Consistency - solving block and mempool inconsistency
Lava Vision and How it Works
Kagemni Karimu
Jan 26, 2024
Lava is a modular data network for scaling access to blockchains.
Above all, Lava Network flexibly serves Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) and APIs across any blockchain. It provides a protocol that allows for reliable and multi-chain access to RPC data, by incentivizing RPC providers to join the network. This eliminates the need for developers to maintain their own nodes or work with several providers across every chain (did someone mention Chain Abstraction?). The platform ensures high uptime, data integrity, scalability, privacy, and censorship-resistance. As a Cosmos project, Lava operates on an appchain built using the Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK), Ignite, and Tendermint Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus.
Lava exists as network of node operators that can dynamically add support for any API on any chain. Today, infrastructure is increasingly fragmented as more chains and rollups are launched, creating a poor developer experience - and ultimately, limiting innovation to only a handful for established ecosystems. Lava is addressing this problem; if developer experience improves, so does user experience.
For a general overview of ‘What Lava is?’ you can read our blog with "3 simple metaphors for explaining Lava" or see our introduction about Lava's vision.
Let’s get into some specifics of how Lava works! We’ll examine each of these features in depth in the sections that follows:
Lava works by establishing and distributing a Pairing List to all RPC Consumers. Consumers request a list of eligible Providers for their requested chain and geography by making an RPC call or sending a transaction. They submit an API call Pairing() to the Lava Blockchain to receive the most recent Pairing List. This list contains Providers that will service their API requests for that period or epoch, based upon at least four factors*:* 1) provider stake, 2) epoch blockhash, 3) geolocation, and 4) consumer address. In the future, more complicated considerations, such as consistent quality of service excellence per cluster of providers in a geolocation will be implemented.
Epochs are multiple blocks in length. A new pairing list is calculable each epoch. Epochs are used instead of blocks to lessen overhead, optimize efficiency, and reduce the Lava blockchain’s storage size. For scalability and maximal efficiency, the number of blocks within a given epoch can be changed via on-chain governance. Therefore the Lava community can mediate how often new Pairing Lists will be issued.
Providers become eligible for inclusion on a Pairing List by staking LAVA tokens. Once a provider completes setup, they can begin servicing requests. Their verified requests will be included in the Pairing List from the next Epoch. Although tokens are used for payment, Compute units (CUs) are assigned to each service API to measure a provider’s workload, which determines their rewards.
On Lava, increasing the number of Consumer pairings a Provider receives does not require new nodes or addresses. Consumers can access RPC through our Gateway, SDK, or Server Kit, streamlining their workflow and abstracting away the Pairing List.
Lava works by empowering its users to add additional configuration sets through the use of modular specifications. A specification (affectionately referred to as a ‘spec’) establishes the APIs provided by Providers for Consumers through JSON. Lava already has numerous specs, which are modified and added in modular fashion through governance proposals.
When adding a new blockchain, the JSON (spec file) must specify that chain’s available RPC APIs, its minimum stake, and a few other base configurations. Using this very same method, a consumer can even add specs for Rich APIs to Lava by simply specifying the accepted calls to the node(s) in their spec! After that, the spec is submitted to the chain with a simple command: lavad tx gov submit-proposal spec-add [path-to-JSON]. Those staked on the network are given a chance to vote on the proposal. Once the vote is passed - a spec becomes the standard by which users of the network agree to use the APIs of a chain.
With the use of spec modules, Lava aims to offer total flexibility to developers needing access to web3. You can read more about specs here.
Lava keeps Providers accountable using rewards and disincentives: Providers are subject to scoring, burning, slashing, and jailing. However, the true goal of Quality of Service (QoS) in blockchain technology is to incentivize providers to deliver good service by offering rewards in the form of more clients and higher payments.
On Lava, QoS is measured using three metrics: availability, latency, and freshness, with a cumulative score ranging between 0 and 1. We define each of these terms for clarity; availability is measured by the number of messages a provider is able to answer, latency tracks the time it takes for provider to respond to a client, and freshness measures how up-to-date the provider is with the blockchain.
All three of these give a comprehensive picture of how a given RPC provider is performing in relation to the demands of the network. As such, Consumers assign scores per relay and those scores are used to deterministically rank providers per epoch— assuring that the most performant and reliable providers are consistently servicing relays.
Lava has several features aimed at improving scalability, including blockchain optimization techniques and specific features on the open-source lavad binary that enhance provider and validator performance. Some of these enhancements include:
Lava is a single network for fast, reliable and cost-efficient access to any blockchain. Its first service is to provide a performant RPC solution for developers and users, and it will later expand to any type of data infrastructure e.g. indexing and oracles.
If you’re looking to grow with us as we move towards Mainnet, we are already working with:
You can get in touch with the Lava team here: lavanet.xyz/partnerships
Alternatively, join our Discord to speak directly with our community and ask questions: discord.gg/bKkEtU6AMQ
Lava is the modular data access network for scaling access to any blockchain.
Anyone can add in-demand chains and APIs as modules to Lava, with each module being served by a network of node operators competing to offer the best service. RPC is the first service supported by the protocol and already helps developers unlock innovation across 30+ chains.
By leveraging modular architecture and a peer-to-peer network of node operators, Lava powers the universal and performant infrastructure layer for developers to build whatever, wherever.
There are many ways in which Lava differs versus other providers, but the simplest explanation is that Lava is a network of providers and contributors, not an individual provider. In our blog "3 simple metaphors for explaining Lava", we describe Lava as similar to a marketplace vs other providers being individual shops. You c can explore some of Lava's technical differences in our blog about common considerations when picking RPC providers, and how Lava stands out.
The network is designed to reward providers across latency, data freshness and availability.
RPC providers are slashed, burned, jailed, scored, and rewarded according to their performance in serving RPC consumers. Data and requests are off-chain and completely peer-to-peer, and enhancements are made constantly to ensure that RPC Provider and Consumer services are completely optimized.
Try out our Gateway! You can sign up directly here or check out our helpful Getting Started guide in our Docs if you get stuck.
Visit our docs, read our litepaper at litepaper.lavanet.xyz, or join our discord https://discord.gg/lavanetxyz ! We’d love your feedback and participation!
