Paper 2025/1975

Rethinking Consensus with Time as a Primitive

Ignacio Amores-Sesar, Aarhus University
Michelle Yeo, National University of Singapore
Abstract

We propose a novel timestamping mechanism for consensus protocols that reliably assigns submission times to honest transactions while preventing adversarial transactions from forging their timestamps. Our mechanism remains secure even under asynchronous networks and in the presence of corrupted parties. We demonstrate how it can be integrated into the three main families of consensus protocols and show its compatibility with layer-2 solutions. This construction enables robust layer-2 implementations that do not rely on timing assumptions, remain resilient under network saturation, and prevent collusion between users and validators to censor honest users.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Cryptographic protocols
Publication info
Preprint.
Keywords
ConsensusDAGProof of workProof of stakelayer 2
Contact author(s)
amores-sesar @ proton me
michellexyeo @ gmail com
History
2025-10-25: approved
2025-10-22: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2025/1975
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/1975,
      author = {Ignacio Amores-Sesar and Michelle Yeo},
      title = {Rethinking Consensus with Time as a Primitive},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/1975},
      year = {2025},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1975}
}
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