All 4 validators in consensus — quorum maintained. Zero fork events. Zero unfinalized blocks since mainnet launch.
“Byzantine Fault Tolerance is not a feature —
it is the foundation on which legal settlement is built.”
SWSS Chain Whitepaper — SCP Architecture Section
Round Architecture
ROUND 0 BASE
2s
round0Timeout · engine.go
ADDITIONAL
+ 1s
blockTime per round
ROUND 0 EFFECTIVE
3s
base + blockTime
ESCALATION
× 2ⁿ
exponential per failed round
SCP Guarantees
Instant Finality
Once 3 of 4 validators commit a block, it is irrevocable. SCP issues the finality certificate at this point — no subsequent block can reverse a committed transaction.
Fork Prevention
BFT consensus is fork-free by design. SCP guarantees that all validators agree on the same chain state — no orphaned blocks, no uncle blocks.
Fault Tolerance (F=1)
One validator may fail, go offline, or act maliciously — SCP continues reaching finality with the remaining 3. N=4 satisfies N=3F+1 with F=1.
BFT consensus guarantees finality under the assumption that fewer than F validators are Byzantine (faulty or malicious). SWSS Chain runs N=4 with F=1 — one validator may fail without loss of finality. BFT does not protect against Sybil attacks; the validator admission process is gated by the 100,000 SWSS Coin stake requirement.
SCP Implementation — SWSS Chain Proprietary
Fault detection: validator heartbeat + block production monitor
Failover: automatic quorum reconfiguration within 1 BFT round
Recovery: rejoining validator must replay from last committed state
Threshold signature scheme: each validator holds a partial BLS key
Aggregated signature: 3-of-4 partial signatures produce a valid cert
Cert structure: [blockHash, roundNumber, validatorBitmask, aggSig]
