Ouroboros Leios

The proposed Leios specification delivers a 30-50x throughput increase (from ~4.5 TxkB/s to ~140-300 TxkB/s) while maintaining manageable ecosystem impact. Unlike the research paper's approach, which achieves higher throughput but requires extensive ecosystem changes and 2-3 minute confirmation times, the CIP specification strikes a strategic balance.

Key advantages of the CIP approach include modest latency increases (45-60 seconds vs 20 seconds), familiar transaction structures for ecosystem compatibility, and a realistic 1-1.5 year deployment timeline compared to 2.5-3 years for higher-concurrency alternatives.

Ouroboros Leios achieves higher transaction throughput by allowing block producers to create additional blocks alongside the regular Praos chain. These supplementary blocks, called Endorser Blocks (EBs), reference extra transactions that would otherwise wait for the standard Praos blocks (called Ranking Blocks or RBs) in this protocol in future active slots.

To ensure data availability and correctness, these blocks undergo committee validation before their transactions become part of the permanent ledger. The key insight is that we can maintain Praos's security guarantees while processing more transactions by carefully managing when and how these additional blocks are validated and included in the chain.

EB inclusion is opportunistic rather than guaranteed, depending on the random timing of block production relative to the certification process. This design preserves the existing Praos chain structure while adding substantial transaction capacity through the secondary validation pathway.