Orbs Core Protocol Specification

V1 release

Terminology

Definitions of terms like node, service, committee. Available here.

System Init

Node and all services init (fresh start or after a restart).
Call Method

Client calls a read-only method of a service (not under consensus).
Send Transaction

Client sends a transaction that may write to state of a service (under consensus).
Get Transaction Status

Client queries regarding the status and receipt of an old transaction.
Block Creation

The main continuous flow of consensus where blocks are created from pooled transactions.
Inter Node Sync

Block synchronization between nodes.
Intra Node Sync

Block synchronization between services inside a node.

Public Api

Provides external public gateway interface (like JSON over HTTP) for clients.
Transaction Pool

Holds pending and committed transactions that are propagated between nodes. Helps avoid transaction duplication.
Gossip

Connects different nodes over the network with efficient message broadcast and unicast.
Consensus Algo

Pluggable consensus algorithm (multiple algorithms supported side by side).
Consensus Context

Provides the system context for the consensus algorithm and deals with the actual content of blocks.
Virtual Machine

Executes service methods (smart contracts) using various processors and produces state difference as a result.
Processor

Stateless execution engine for smart contract methods in an isolated environment (multiple languages supported).
Block Storage

Holds the long term journal of all confirmed blocks (the actual chain of blocks), performs block sync between nodes.
State Storage

Holds the latest state under consensus meaning all of the state variables for all deployed services in a virtual chain.
Cross-chain Connector

Runs nodes for other blockchains like Ethereum and provides read access to them.