Protocol status

Realizing Ouroboros Leios is not a single hand-off from research to engineering, but a progression: the protocol described in CIP-164 is matured through simulation, prototyping, design, implementation and quality assurance until it can be considered for deployment to mainnet. This page tracks where that work currently stands, cut along two dimensions:

• Component stages: the parts of the protocol flow, each progressing through the stages below. Visualized graphically and in a full matrix.
• Release stages: possible increments that can be considered for a rollout to mainnet, as a dimensional plan to node releases.

Component stages

A component moves through these stages, which are deliberately not a waterfall several of them progress in parallel and feed back into each other:

Stage	Meaning
CIP	The protocol-level question is settled in CIP-164; we know what is needed.
Prototype	Explored in simulation or on real infrastructure, enough to trust the approach is feasible.
Design	How to build it in cardano-node is written down in the technical design.
Implementation	Production code exists in cardano-node (and, eventually, other node implementations).
Assurance	Confidence gained through formal methods, statistical analysis, e2e and adversarial testing sufficiently high to deploy to mainnet.

This is a work-in-progress self-assessment

Please read the marks below with several grains of salt:

• They are our own judgement, not a review. The marks reflect how the implementation team sees the state of things at the time of writing. Nothing here has been externally audited, and none of it constitutes acceptance criteria, a commitment, or a schedule.
• Its a moving target. The CIP is mostly stable, but the detailed node-level design is a living document and still evolves along with prototyping and confidence seeking work chapters. Open questions are indicated by ? items, but visibility may be incomplete.
• Nothing is "done" until high confidence. A component with everything but the confidence stage marked is not ready for mainnet. That last column is the gate, and it is empty nearly everywhere. Furthermore, attaining high confidence on some components may raise issues with others and may uncover more work.

Click or hover a badge for the full breakdown of a component.

✓Done~Ongoing?Open questionNot started

Key registration & rotation

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓no key rotation via headers
Implementation	✓Done Stage 0Generate BLS keys Stage 0Create and submit pool registration with BLS keys
Assurance	~auditing rc-w41

Committee selection

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓Done
Implementation	✓Done Stage 0Stake-based committee selection Stage 0Committee selection at epoch boundaries
Assurance	~auditing rc-w41

High-throughput Tx submission

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓Done
Implementation	~Ongoing Stage 1TxSubmisison V2-undecision Stage 2TxSubmission param tuning
Assurance	~load testing

High-throughput mempool

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓Done
Implementation	✓Done Stage 1Double-buffered mempool Stage 1Capped forging Stage 2Pre-flight forging
Assurance	~first audit ok

Block production

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓pre-application vs. mempool
Implementation	~Ongoing Size mempool via pparams Stage 1Forge and store EBs Stage 1Forge RBs with certificates Stage 2Pre-apply certificates
Assurance	~auditing on rc-w41

EB diffusion

CIP	✓update mini-protocols
Prototype	~policies, egress scheduling
Design	?settle policies, good enough?
Implementation	~Ongoing Stage 1Announce and detect equivocations of EBs Stage 1Diffuse and validate EBs via TxCache Stage 2Egress scheduling Stage 1Basic fetching policy (not full hedging) Stage 1Efficient serving Stage 2Incremental offers Stage 2Advanced fetching policy Stage 2Catch up on not yet certified Leios EBs
Assurance	~auditing on rc-w41

Voting & certification

CIP	✓update mini-protocols
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓keep push-based voting
Implementation	Not started Stage 1Voting logic Stage 1Diffuse and validate votes Stage 1Store and aggregate votes Stage 2Pull-based vote diffusion
Assurance	~auditing on rc-w41

Block validation & adoption

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓consensus/ledger API defined
Implementation	~Ongoing Stage 1Validate EB announcing and certifying blocks Stage 1EB fetching on chain selection Stage 2Out of order fetch EBs in Genesis
Assurance	~auditing on rc-w41

Cross-cutting components

Cryptographic primitives

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓Done
Implementation	✓Done
Assurance	✓Audited Primitives audited Certs peer-reviewed

New protocol parameters

CIP	✓Per-tx limits unlikely
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓Done
Implementation	~Ongoing Protocol parameters and genesis config Constitution guard rails
Assurance	~working groups

Serialization

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓no dedicated cert
Implementation	✓Done Stage 0Announcements and certifies bit in headers Stage 0Certificates in body Stage 0BLS key in pool registration cert in txs Protocol parameter updates in txs
Assurance	~CDDL conformance

Praos > Leios prioritization

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓Done
Implementation	~Ongoing Stage 1Socket options Stage 2Incremental decoding
Assurance	~load testing

Transaction cache & storage

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓schema improvements
Design	✓Done
Implementation	~Ongoing Stage 1Disk-backed TxCache Stage 1Volatile/Immutable LeiosDB Stage 2Fully optimised LeiosDB
Assurance	~auditing on rc-w41

Node API & configuration

CIP	✓Done
Prototype	✓Done
Design	✓Done
Implementation	~Ongoing Stage 0Query pool state showing key registration Query committee details Stage 0Client APIs inline certified EB txs Stage 1Node accepts BLS keys
Assurance	~Kleioscan, SPO tools

Full matrix

Component	CIP	Prototype	Design	Implementation	Assurance
Cryptographic primitives	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓Audited
New protocol parameters	✓Per-tx limits unlikely	✓	✓	~	~working groups
Serialization	✓	✓	✓no dedicated cert	✓	~CDDL conformance
Praos > Leios prioritization	✓	✓	✓	~	~load testing
Key registration & rotation	✓	✓	✓no key rotation via headers	✓	~auditing rc-w41
Committee selection	✓	✓	✓	✓	~auditing rc-w41
High-throughput Tx submission	✓	✓	✓	~	~load testing
High-throughput mempool	✓	✓	✓	✓	~first audit ok
Block production	✓	✓	✓pre-application vs. mempool	~	~auditing on rc-w41
EB diffusion	✓update mini-protocols	~policies, egress scheduling	?settle policies, good enough?	~	~auditing on rc-w41
Transaction cache & storage	✓	✓schema improvements	✓	~	~auditing on rc-w41
Voting & certification	✓update mini-protocols	✓	✓keep push-based voting		~auditing on rc-w41
Block validation & adoption	✓	✓	✓consensus/ledger API defined	~	~auditing on rc-w41
Node API & configuration	✓	✓	✓	~	~Kleioscan, SPO tools

Release stages

The same implementation scope, cut along the other dimension: each stage is a potential cardano-node release scope that could be considered to hard-fork mainnet. Not only the release as a whole, but each individual item requires "high confidence" before that step is taken. Scope items take their status from the component breakdown above; where an item groups several sub-items, it shows the roll-up of those. See the dimensional plan for the staging itself.

The staging is provisional

• The stage contents may be incomplete. As we are continously prototyping and validating, implementation items are still being discovered, and an empty-looking stage table is not evidence of a small scope.
• The parameter tuples are illustrative. Names like "0/0/∞/0/0" or "1/4/7/100k/1M" sketch the intent of a stage, not agreed values; the Leios protocol parameter set is still being finalized and would in any case be subject to on-chain governance.
• Stages are scopes, not dates. A completed stage means a release could be considered for a hard fork, not that one is planned. Hard forks require governance approval by DReps and stake pool operators.

Stage 0: Dijkstra supports Leios6/8 done

Scope item	Component	Implementation	Assurance
Dijkstra block definition / serialization contains Leios Announcements and certifies bit in headers BLS keys in block headers (?) Certificates in body BLS key in pool registration cert in txs Protocol parameters in txs	Serialization	✓Done	~Ongoing
Generate BLS keys	Key registration & rotation	✓Done	~Ongoing
Create and submit pool registration with BLS keys Check PoP in ledger rules	Key registration & rotation	✓Done	~Ongoing
Query pool state showing key registration	Node API & configuration	✓Done	~Ongoing
Stake-based committee selection	Committee selection	✓Done	~Ongoing
Committee selection at epoch boundaries Committee in ledger state	Committee selection	✓Done	~Ongoing
Client APIs inline certified EB txs	Node API & configuration	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Node integration 11.2	not in status list	–	–

Stage 1: Low params (1s, 4s, 7s, 40KB, 260KB, 720M mem, 200G steps, 500 seats, 75%)3/19 done

Scope item	Component	Implementation	Assurance
Socket options	Praos > Leios prioritization	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
TxSubmisison V2-undecision	High-throughput Tx submission	✓Done	~Ongoing
Double-buffered mempool	High-throughput mempool	✓Done	~Ongoing
Capped forging	High-throughput mempool	✓Done	~Ongoing
Forge and store EBs	Block production	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Volatile/Immutable LeiosDB	Transaction cache & storage	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Disk-backed TxCache	Transaction cache & storage	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Announce and detect equivocations of EBs	EB diffusion	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Diffuse and validate EBs via TxCache	EB diffusion	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Basic fetching policy (not full hedging)	EB diffusion	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Efficient serving	EB diffusion	Not started	~Ongoing
Voting logic	Voting & certification	Not started	~Ongoing
Diffuse and validate votes	Voting & certification	Not started	~Ongoing
Store and aggregate votes	Voting & certification	Not started	~Ongoing
Forge RBs with certificates	Block production	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
EB fetching on chain selection	Block validation & adoption	Not started	~Ongoing
Validate EB announcing and certifying blocks	Block validation & adoption	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Node accepts BLS keys	Node API & configuration	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Node integration 11.3	not in status list	–	–

Stage 2: Higher params (1s, 4s, 7s, 100KB+, 1MB+, ..GSteps, ..GMem, 900 seats, 75%)0/13 done

Scope item	Component	Implementation	Assurance
TxSubmission param tuning	High-throughput Tx submission	Not started	~Ongoing
Pre-apply certificates	Block production	Not started	~Ongoing
Incremental offers	EB diffusion	Not started	~Ongoing
Egress scheduling	EB diffusion	~Ongoing	~Ongoing
Pull-based vote diffusion	Voting & certification	Not started	~Ongoing
TxSubmission param tuning	High-throughput Tx submission	Not started	~Ongoing
Incremental decoding	Praos > Leios prioritization	Not started	~Ongoing
Pre-flight forging	High-throughput mempool	Not started	~Ongoing
Advanced fetching policy	EB diffusion	Not started	~Ongoing
Fully optimised LeiosDB	Transaction cache & storage	Not started	~Ongoing
Catch up on not yet certified Leios EBs	EB diffusion	Not started	~Ongoing
Out of order fetch EBs in Genesis	Block validation & adoption	Not started	~Ongoing
Node integration	not in status list	–	–