StakePoint
Solana DeFi Glossary
Definitions of key terms used in Solana DeFi, token locking, LP locking, and staking. Published by the StakePoint team.
Tower BFT
Solana's optimised Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus algorithm.
Definition
Tower BFT is Solana's implementation of Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) consensus, optimised to take advantage of Proof of History. It allows Solana validators to reach consensus on transaction ordering with significantly less communication overhead than traditional BFT algorithms.
In Tower BFT, validators vote on a fork of the ledger and increase their stake-weighted lockout for that fork with each vote. This exponential lockout makes it increasingly costly to switch to a different fork, providing economic finality.
Tower BFT is one of several architectural innovations — alongside Proof of History, Gulf Stream, Turbine, and Sealevel — that together enable Solana's high throughput and low latency.
StakePoint & Tower BFT
Tower BFT is a core component of Solana's consensus mechanism that ensures all StakePoint transactions are finalized securely and quickly, typically within one or two seconds.
Related Pages
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Tower BFT on Solana?
Tower BFT is Solana's Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithm that uses Proof of History to reduce communication overhead and enable fast, secure finality.
Related Terms
Proof of History (PoH)
Solana's cryptographic clock that timestamps transactions before they enter consensus.
Proof of Stake (PoS)
A consensus mechanism where validators are selected to produce blocks based on their staked SOL.
Validator
A network participant that processes transactions and maintains the Solana blockchain.
Solana Mainnet
The live production blockchain network of Solana where real transactions occur.
Gulf Stream
Solana's transaction forwarding protocol that pushes transactions to validators before their slot.