Latest version is here: https://warpcast.notion.site/Snapchain-v2-Public-10e6a6c0c101807aadfacbcddda8ce4f


Farcaster hubs are finding it harder to stay in sync. The deltagraph’s eventual consistency is making sync more complex as the network grows. Two hubs can end up in different states due to missed gossip, local rate limits or missing onchain state. The time taken to complete sync is increasing sub-linearly with the size of the network at an untenable rate.

We need a new architecture that guarantees:

  1. Decentralized global state — anyone download the entire network in a few hours.
  2. Fast sync between apps — changes should show up on all apps within a minute.
  3. No-fee posting — users must be able to send messages without paying fees of any kind.
  4. Rate limits — users shouldn’t be able to store or broadcast an infinite number of messages.
  5. No turing-completeness — required to discourage people from spamming the network.

Snapchains for ordering

We propose changing our consensus model from a deltagraph to a snapchain. This introduces ordering and strong consistency which solves many of our sync problems while retaining all the properties of deltagraphs that we really like.