Proof of Trusted Execution: A Consensus Paradigm for Deterministic Blockchain Finality

TL;DR

PoTE replaces replicated re-execution with hardware-attested deterministic execution inside heterogeneous VM-based TEEs, achieving sub-second finality without forks. A unique proposer is derived from public randomness, and finality requires a k-of-n cross-vendor attestation threshold, eliminating single-vendor risk. The approach is motivated by high-throughput, low-latency applications like a trillion-dollar DEX and validated via a Lighthouse-based prototype showing ~100–150 ms commit and ~10k TPS, with modest CPU/memory overhead. This work demonstrates that hardware-rooted, multi-vendor TEEs can deliver low-latency, auditable consensus suitable for latency-bound financial systems while preserving deterministic state progression.

Abstract

Current blockchain consensus protocols -- notably, Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) -- deliver global agreement but exhibit structural constraints. PoW anchors security in heavy computation, inflating energy use and imposing high confirmation latency. PoS improves efficiency but introduces stake concentration, long-range and "nothing-at-stake" vulnerabilities, and a hard performance ceiling shaped by slot times and multi-round committee voting. In this paper, we propose Proof of Trusted Execution (PoTE), a consensus paradigm where agreement emerges from verifiable execution rather than replicated re-execution. Validators operate inside heterogeneous VM-based TEEs, each running the same canonical program whose measurement is publicly recorded, and each producing vendor-backed attestations that bind the enclave code hash to the block contents. Because the execution is deterministic and the proposer is uniquely derived from public randomness, PoTE avoids forks, eliminates slot.time bottlenecks, and commits blocks in a single round of verification. We present the design of a PoTE consensus client, describe our reference implementation, and evaluate its performance against the stringent throughput requirements of the Trillion decentralized exchange.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: The PoTE Consensus Protocol
• Figure 2: PoTE block lifecycle. A uniquely selected proposer enclave executes the canonical program $C$ on state $S_t$ and transaction batch $T_t$, obtains a hardware attestation binding the code hash $h_C$ and block hash $H(B_t)$, and broadcasts the attested block. Validators gather cross-vendor re-attestations and finalize once a multi-vendor quorum is met, producing deterministic, fork-free state $S_{t+1}$.
• Figure 3: Extended block structure with PoTE-specific header fields highlighted. The additional tee_vendor_id and attestation_quote bind the canonical code hash $h_C$ and block content hash $H(B_t)$ to the proposal, enabling deterministic verification without fork-choice.
• Figure 4: Block Commit Latency
• Figure 5: Throughput scalability of PoTE under different optimization targets.