As blockchain technologies mature, new protocol specifications are emerging, which take unique approaches to software design and how consensus is achieved. We have talked about Multchain and OpenChain in the past, but Tendermint promises to be a viable solution for many permissioned blockchain use cases. It’s design is modular, meaning that the application layer (smart contract) and the consensus layer are completely independent. This provides added flexibility and allows for business logic to be written in practically any programming language. In addition, its unique approach to consensus, a round-robin Proof-of-Skate algorithm, is much better suited for permissioned blockchain scenarios than Proof-of-Work.

Meher and Sebastien talk to Tendermint co-founders, Jae Kwon, Dustin Byington and Ethan Buchman, about this promising new blockchain protocol and how it is different from other projects we’ve seen so far.

Topics covered in this episode:

How Tendermint came to be and how it has evolved since its creation

Smart contract programming and the Tendermint Socket Protocol (TMSP)

How Tendermint makes use of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

Tendermint’s approach to PoS consensus and its scalability benefits

Use case for permissioned and public blockchains

Future plans and business models

Episode links:

Tendermint

Tendermint for fast settlements

Tendermint vs PBFT

Tendermint specification

This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/113