With multiple years of enterprise delivery under its belt, VeChain has 
established itself as the top public blockchain solution provider in the world.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1582106/vechain.jpg 
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738221/VeChain_Logo.jpg

In pursuit of our vision to enable global and scalable mass adoption of public 
blockchain technology, the VeChain Research and Development team has built 
SURFACE (PoA 2.0), standing for a Secure, Use-case-adaptive, Relatively 
Fork-free Approach of Chain Extension.

This novel consensus mechanism was built to eliminate the weaknesses and gain 
the benefits of the two main consensus types; Nakamoto Consensus and Byzantine 
Fault Tolerance (BFT). With this new mechanism, the VeChainThor blockchain can 
maximize its high throughput capability while also ensuring data finality. What 
this means in practice is that very high-volume use cases can exist on-chain 
with the highest level of data security unfound in any other blockchain 
platforms.

With this major update to our technical model, VeChainThor becomes the ideal 
open-source platform for enterprises, governments, or anyone looking to build 
their applications on a secure, low cost, immutable, and full featured public 
blockchain.

Today, the VeChain Foundation is proud to be launching our brand new public 
testnet ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3240201-1&h=2181531042&u=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fvechain%2Fthor%2Freleases%2Ftag%2Fv2.0.0-stage.0&a=launching+our+brand+new+public+testnet 
) with VIP-193 ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3240201-1&h=274224647&u=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fvechain%2FVIPs%2Fblob%2Fmaster%2Fvips%2FVIP-193.md&a=VIP-193 
) fully implemented. This monumental milestone paves the way towards the full 
enactment of PoA 2.0 on mainnet.

Described in the paper SURFACE: A Practical Blockchain Consensus Algorithm for 
Real-World Networks, ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3240201-1&h=3340148658&u=https%3A%2F%2Farxiv.org%2Fabs%2F2002.07565&a=SURFACE%3A+A+Practical+Blockchain+Consensus+Algorithm+for+Real-World+Networks 
) the PoA 2.0 consensus algorithm contains three major components:

  - The VRF-based source of randomness,
  - A committee-based block producing process and,
  - A passive block finality confirmation process.

The algorithm is proposed via two VIPs (VeChain Improvement Proposals): VIP-193 
and VIP-200. VIP-193 focuses on the first two components while VIP-200 
describes the last component.

As per our roadmap illustrated below, the realization of VIP-193 on public 
testnet has bolstered our confidence for the official implementation of this 
major upgrade to our technical suite.

PoA 2.0: The Foundation of Economic Digitization

PoA 2.0 clears the way for large scale adoption of public blockchain, tackling 
the critical weaknesses of contemporary mechanisms found in other blockchains. 
Its key features include:

A VRF-based source of randomness: A function that balances the unpredictability 
and the unbiasedness of the block-proposing schedule, ensuring the highest 
level of data security. For example - adversaries in this model are unable to 
either manipulate the leader selection process to control several consecutive 
block proposers nor predict and corrupt several consecutive block proposers way 
ahead in time.

Committee-endorsed block production: A process that significantly reduces the 
probability of forking, which decreases the confirmation delay and increases 
the throughput (TPS).

The finality mechanism: This feature provides block finality, i.e., performance 
even in asynchronous conditions and with uncompromised consistency. As a 
result, a block in PoA 2.0 will first be confirmed in a probabilistic fashion 
with very low latency before being finalized within a longer period. This means 
that a finalized block (as well as all the transactions packed in the block) 
could be theoretically proven immutable in any situation.

A Certain Future

PoA 2.0 was developed to meet the increasing demand for better performance and 
greater security from the enterprise and business-tier clients developing 
solutions with our toolsets. With the involvement of blockchain experts from 
top tier VeResearch partners contributing, PoA 2.0 is a significant milestone 
in the entire blockchain industry.

With VIP-193 now made public, VeChainThor continues its mission to provide 
secure, scalable, reliable, and cost-effective infrastructure-level protocols 
in anticipation of the wave of global digitization that is just around the 
corner.

About VeChain Foundation

The VeChain Foundation has worked tirelessly to build the bridges between 
blockchain technology and the real world. VeChainThor's evolution continues to 
gather pace, transitioning from consortium network to best-in-class public 
blockchain platform using Proof of Authority consensus, boasting advanced 
technical features, governance structure and economic model.

As the ecosystem enabler, the Foundation's mission is to empower builders and 
innovators by developing tools that systematically eliminate adoption hurdles. 
Through the development of a suite of innovative tools such as multi-task 
transaction, fee delegation and VeChain ToolChain(TM), VeChain has been able to 
substantially lower the barriers to entry for businesses and developers alike.

Alongside key strategic partners PwC and DNV, VeChain has collaborated with 
world-leading enterprises including Walmart China, Bayer China, BMW Group, BYD 
Auto, PICC, Shanghai Gas, LVMH, D.I.G, ASI Group and more.

For more information, including developer tools/documents and foundation 
grants, please visit: www.vechain.org

Source - VeChain

CONTACT: VeChain contact: News contact: press@vechain.com; Business contact: 
bd@vechain.com; DNV contact: Cecilie Løne, Global Communication Manager, ph. 
+47 90581704, eMail Cecilie.Lone@dnv.com