Consensus protocols

Besu supports the following consensus protocols:

• QBFT (proof of authority) - The recommended enterprise-grade consensus protocol for private networks.
• IBFT 2.0 (proof of authority) - Supported for existing private networks.
• Clique (proof of authority) - Not recommended for production use.
• Proof of stake - Used on Ethereum Mainnet and public testnets.
• Ethash (proof of work) - Can be used in small development networks.

See a comparison of the proof of authority consensus protocols.

The config property in the genesis file specifies the consensus protocol for a chain.

{
  "config": {
  ...
    "ethash": {
    ...
    }
  },
  ...
}

{
  "config": {
    ...
    "clique": {
    ...
    }
  },
  ...
}

{
  "config": {
    ...
    "ibft2": {
      ...
    }
  },
  ...
}

{
  "config": {
    ...
    "qbft": {
      ...
    }
  },
  ...
}