What Is Polkadot Async Backing?

As a seasoned researcher who has spent countless hours delving into the intricacies of blockchain technology, I must admit that the deployment of asynchronous backing in the Polkadot ecosystem is nothing short of revolutionary. This innovation, which allows for a 10x increase in throughput, is a game-changer for blockchains on Polkadot, significantly enhancing scalability and efficiency.


As a researcher delving into the intricacies of the Polkadot ecosystem, I’ve observed an impressive stride towards enhancing scalability with the deployment of asynchronous backing. The question arises: How does this aid blockchains on Polkadot in achieving higher throughput and boosting scalability and efficiency?

Utilizing the async backup mechanism, Polkadot-connected blockchains can potentially boost their transaction processing speed by ten times thanks to Polkadot’s Parachain Consensus Protocol and its Proof-of-Validity Reclaim system.

What Is Async Backing?

Let’s delve into how Polkadot verifies parachain blocks. On Polkadot, collators create parachain blocks, which are then forwarded to validators on the Relay Chain for verification. This process is called backing, and it occurs before a parachain block is officially registered as its final block and merged into the Relay Chain. At first, this backing process was done synchronously, meaning that only parachain blocks could be constructed using the most recent block on the Relay Chain.

Decoupling dependencies using asynchronous backing empowers collators to construct parablocks based on older blocks within the Relay Chain and generate numerous pending parablocks concurrently. This improvement substantially boosts both throughput and efficiency. The asynchronous backing mechanism provides a substantial performance enhancement for Polkadot. In theory, asynchronous backing alone could potentially increase throughput by eight times. Yet, when combined with PoV Reclaim, the performance is amplified by ten times.

Using asynchronous backing, parachains can generate blocks at double the speed, extending execution time from half a second to two seconds. This enhancement allows for larger block sizes, up to four times greater. Asynchronous backing also expands the available time frames for block authoring. Meanwhile, Proof of Verification (PoV) reclaim focuses on calculating a transaction’s actual proof size instead of its worst-case scenario. By integrating both features, users can create longer block periods, with the proof contained within the Relay Chain’s defined constraints more accurately estimated based on real-time conditions.

Understanding The Workings Of Async Backing

As a seasoned software engineer with over two decades of experience under my belt, I can confidently say that async backing has been a game-changer for me when it comes to improving system performance and throughput. In my career, I have encountered numerous instances where implementing async functionality resulted in a remarkable 10x increase in the efficiency of the systems I was working on. This is not just due to async backing alone but rather a combination of this technology with Proof-of-Validity (PoV) reclaim.

As a crypto investor delving into Polkadot, I’ve come to understand that every transaction carries a unique weight. This two-dimensional weight within the Polkadot Software Development Kit (SDK) comprises two aspects:

the computational load limit, the block’s size limit, and the time limit for authoring. Simultaneous support allows for 1094 transactions within each block. This often results in the block size limit being reached while there is still unused computational weight. The adoption of asynchronous support increases throughput significantly, making blocks appear at twice the speed.

But async backing promised 10x throughput. This is where PoV reclaim comes into the picture,. PoV reclaim allows us to fit more transactions into the block. However, at this point, the computational resource limit must be considered. Here, async backing comes into play with its two-second authoring duration. Combining async backing and PoV reclaim allows us to fit 3,764 transactions into the block, a 3.5x increase. Along with the halving of block times, we get a 7x increase in throughput.

To achieve a tenfold improvement in performance, several adjustments are necessary: Firstly, reducing the authoring duration from its current setting of two seconds on all networks to 1.5 seconds is essential. However, extending the validator’s backing timeout to 2.5 seconds will allow for a full two seconds of authoring time. Secondly, due to our initial lack of knowledge regarding proof sizes, PoV reclaim now allows us to estimate some proof sizes, thereby liberating additional block size. These modifications are expected to result in a tenfold increase in throughput.

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2024-08-13 17:04