Avalanche Pre-Consensus
In the first part of this series, ABC's Antony Zegers discussed how integrating Avalanche will help eCash to be more secure, allowing it to be a more resistant chain against attacks coming from other miners using the same SHA-256 consensus algorithm. To review this, you can read part I of the series here. *
However, post consensus is not the only interesting function that developers are bringing to eCash. The eCash roadmap proposes to use the Avalanche in the pre-consensus phase as a part of improving the usability of the currency for payments. Transactions in proof of work-based currencies need to be confirmed in a mined block to really be considered secure. This limitation affects the use of these cryptocurrencies as effective means of exchange because merchants need to wait a determined amount of time to receive their funds after being paid.
Antony Zegers, of Bitcoin ABC, stressed pre-consensus is the next thing they strive to bring to eCash, after the implementation of Avalanche for post consensus. He explained:
“Conceptually, pre-consensus is just using Avalanche protocol to decide on regular individual transactions, not just blocks. So once you do this, that transaction becomes "finalized", and is guaranteed not to be double-spent in the next block.”
This would effectively make transactions almost instantaneous with an additional layer of security behind it.
“So, from the user's perspective, this just means that as soon as the transaction is finalized, which can take place in a couple of seconds, you can have confidence that the transaction is final, and won't be reversed.”
PoW and PoS Combined
Zegers pointed out the importance of all of these features coming to eCash, as the first cryptocurrency paving the way for a combined consensus paradigm. This focus also allows reusing much of the proof of work projects already constructed by lots of developers. These can be used as drop-in replacements, Zegers stated, even without implementing all the Avalanche features coming to the chain. Zegers, on the subject, stated:
“Wallets, exchanges, businesses, etc. can use Bitcoin stuff on eCash as pretty much a drop-in replacement. So, for example, an SPV wallet will "just work" the same as on Bitcoin, or BCH, and doesn't even need to be aware of what Avalanche is doing. So this provides a very low barrier to entry.”
While there is not an estimated time of arrival for all of these improvements, the developer stated this job was a “top priority” for ABC, being the focus of the team for the foreseeable future.
*Mr. Zegers first name was inadvertently spelled incorrectly in Part 1.
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