One of the original Proof of Stake blockchains, Tezos, has activated “Lima,” the 12th protocol upgrade that was chosen and accepted by the Tezos community. The new version increases throughput, adds a functionality that validators have been clamoring for, and lessens the possibility of smart contracts having problems.
Due to its capacity to easily update thanks to its on-chain governance system, which enables network users to propose and vote on protocol upgrades and improvements, the energy-efficient Tezos is commonly known as the “self-amending blockchain.” It is the fourth protocol change in 2022 alone, and it comes with Lima.
Nomadic Labs, a development team that collaborated with the Lima Upgrade developers, has listed the main enhancements to Tezos functionality in Lima as follows:
Faster blockchain with more pipelining: The “pipelining” validation effort, which speeds up the processing of blocks and activities, is continued by the Lima protocol. It accomplishes this by distinguishing between application, which executes a block’s entire contents, particularly computationally expensive operations like calls to smart contracts, and validation, which performs quick checks like determining whether cryptographic signatures are correct or whether a user has enough money to pay fees.
An incoming block is now just verified before being sent on to additional peers. Block times may now be cut to 15 seconds with the help of this functionality, which also contributes to Tezos’s total Layer 1 throughput increase.
Consensus keys introduced: This enables validators—referred to as bakers in the Tezos ecosystem—to choose a unique key (different from the baker address key) for signing blocks and performing consensus operations. This new functionality allows bakers to easily update their consensus key without altering their public address in circumstances when bakers must modify their node configuration because to security concerns or technological advancements. This eliminates the need to negotiate with off-chain delegators to relocate them to a new location or lose delegators as a result of configuration changes.
Enhancements to tickets – Tickets are a special sort of data that is only available in the Tezos smart contract language. They serve as the basis for scaling solutions and are essential to numerous use cases, including tokenization, voting, authentication, and others. The generation, storage, and transfer of zero-amount tickets are discouraged in Lima, lowering the possibility of smart contract problems.
One of the top Layer 1 blockchains that used staking to protect its network is Tezos, which has a track record of security and scalability. Tezos is a perfect substitute platform for creating eco-friendly blockchain apps since it operates with much less energy and expense.
According to the annual Electric Capital Developer Report, Tezos, a pioneer for Proof of Stake blockchains, has seen quick adoption, substantial growth in developer activity in 2022, with smart contract deployment up 288% from the previous year in 2021, and was also listed among the top developer ecosystems.
The Lima update also completes work on Smart Rollups, a ground-breaking Layer 2 scaling solution that will be unveiled in the next upgrade proposal. A public test of this functionality is scheduled for early 2023. Tezos core developers want to get up to 1,000,000 transactions per second (TPS) thanks to Smart Rollups.
The functionality of Tezos has been improved thanks to previous updates, which include:
Hangzhou: Added a number of enhancements, including views that allow smart contracts to examine the storage state of other smart contracts, timelock encryption to protect against Block Producer Extractable Value, and caching to speed up access to frequently accessed data and reduce gas costs.
Ithaca: Tenderbake, a new Tezos consensus method, was unveiled, enabling quick finality and better Tezos blockchain scalability.
Jakarta: Introduced Transaction Optimistic Rollups (TORUs), a test of guaranteed rollups that enhanced throughput, reduced costs, and opened the door to greatly improved long-term scalability.
Kathmandu: Added the initial stages of pipelined block validation and enabled smart contract optimistic rollups on cutting-edge testnets, setting up the protocol for the eventual complete inclusion of Smart Rollups.
Tezos has emerged as a desirable option for top companies that are extending their reach into Web3 thanks to its capacity for innovation and upgrading in an energy-efficient manner. The Gap, Evian, Team Vitality, Manchester United, and other well-known companies and brands are actively developing their fan and customer experiences on Tezos.
Tezos is still expanding quickly as the preferred blockchain, particularly among NFT platforms and artists. Furthermore, Tezos was the only blockchain present at the recent 2022 Art Basel Miami Beach, where well-known generative artists displayed their creations minted on Tezos.