Analysis of Sui Distributed System Protocol: The Perfect Combination of High Performance and Stability

After months of testing and optimization, the latest performance data of the Sui public chain is impressive. Utilizing PTBs technology, Sui can handle approximately 140,000 to 150,000 operations per second, far exceeding the current mainnet peak level of 700 TPS. Even in the case of partial validation node failures, Sui can still maintain a final confirmation delay of less than 0.5 seconds.

These data reflect Sui's outstanding performance in terms of high throughput and low latency. With the launch of the Sui mainnet, several applications have already been implemented, particularly active in the gaming and NFT sectors. The recently released Sui Lutris technical report elaborates on how Sui achieves low latency and long-term stability while maintaining high throughput.

Blockchain technology has undergone more than a decade of development since the birth of Bitcoin. With the emergence of new application scenarios such as games and NFTs, the industry continues to explore methods to enhance blockchain efficiency, especially in handling high load and real-time interactions.

The current L1 blockchain faces two major challenges: first, achieving high throughput on a low-latency basis, and second, ensuring the long-term stability of the consensus protocol. These challenges need to be overcome by dynamically adjusting the participation mechanism and configuration of validation nodes.

The DAG-based consensus protocol is one of the effective ways to improve throughput, and the Narwhal/Bullshark used by Sui belongs to this category. This protocol allows for the parallel processing of a large number of transactions, making it very suitable for application scenarios such as games and NFTs. However, DAG-based solutions often introduce a few seconds of latency, which can significantly impact operations that require high interactivity.

On the other hand, non-consensus protocols show great potential in reducing latency and scalability, as demonstrated by the early FastPay prototype. These protocols achieve fast transaction processing by eliminating the consensus step. However, they are often limited to simple operations, struggle to support complex smart contracts, and face challenges in dynamically adjusting the set of validating nodes.

The Sui Lutris protocol innovatively combines DAG-based consensus with non-consensus methods, achieving a complementary advantage of both: sub-second latency and sustained throughput of thousands of transactions per second. At the same time, Sui retains the ability to execute complex contracts on shared objects, generate checkpoints, and reconfigure the set of validating nodes across cycles.

The uniqueness of Sui Lutris lies in its hybrid processing approach. For single-owner assets (unique objects) operations, the system employs a consistency broadcasting protocol among validation nodes to achieve lower-than-consensus latency. For complex smart contracts on shared objects, it relies on the consensus mechanism for processing. Additionally, Sui Lutris supports network maintenance operations, such as defining checkpoints and reconfiguring validation nodes.

The transaction lifecycle of Sui Lutris includes the following steps:

1. The user creates and signs the transaction
2. The verification node performs security checks and signs.
3. The client collects responses from validation nodes to form a transaction certificate.
4. The certificate is sent back to the verification node for confirmation.
5. The consensus engine processes transactions that include shared objects.
6. The client collects the responses from the verification nodes as proof of transaction settlement.
7. Generate checkpoint and drive reconfiguration protocol

In addition to the main trading process, Sui Lutris also offers a range of features that support product-level blockchain.

• Checkpoint protocol: generates a history of all transactions for auditing and synchronization.
• Periodic Reconfiguration: Supports dynamic adjustment of the validator node set and voting power.
• Asset unlocking mechanism: Prevents permanent locking of assets due to double-spending attacks.

Sui Lutris, as the foundational protocol of Sui, provides strong support for users to manage a large number of assets. The complete technical report elaborates on the operational mechanisms of security and liveness protocols and provides security proofs within the standard distributed system model.