Consensus Evolution at Radix

Overview

Radix's consensus mechanism has evolved through multiple generations, each building on lessons learned:

eMunie (2013–2017)

Dan Hughes' earliest experiments with distributed ledger design. Explored various approaches to achieving consensus without a single chain.

Tempo (2017–2019)

Tempo was a DAG-based consensus mechanism that used logical clocks and gossip protocols. While innovative, Tempo had limitations in providing the strong finality guarantees needed for DeFi.

Cerberus (2020–present)

Cerberus replaced Tempo with a formal BFT protocol using braided cross-shard consensus. The whitepaper was published in 2020 and validated through the Hyperscale tests.

Xi'an (2027 target)

Xi'an brings Cerberus to production mainnet with full Radix Engine sharding, delivering the linear scalability that has been Radix's goal since inception.