Consensus

Consensus is the process that makes sure all nodes in the network agree on the state of the blockchain. It controls how transactions are confirmed and how new blocks are added, keeping the network consistent and secure.

ADAMANT uses a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, where a fixed set of 101 active delegates take turns forging blocks in a deterministic round-robin order. The active delegate set is selected by token-holder votes and refreshed every round (101 blocks).

This page describes changes to the consensus rules and how they activate.

Consensus Activation Heights

Consensus upgrades are not applied retroactively. Instead, each upgrade activates at a specific block height defined in the node's consensusActivationHeights configuration:

{
  "consensusActivationHeights": {
    "fairSystem": 4359465,
    "spaceship": 100000000
  }
}

Nodes that diverge from these activation heights will fork from the network. Do not change these values on a mainnet node.

For testnet or localnet testing, you can override activation heights using configuration overrides:

node app.js \
  --config test/config.json \
  --genesis test/genesisBlock.json \
  --config-set consensusActivationHeights.fairSystem=203 \
  --config-set consensusActivationHeights.spaceship=405

This is useful when running a Localnet to test consensus behavior in an isolated environment.

fairSystem

• Activation height: 4,359,465 (mainnet)

• Description

  Before this upgrade, delegate ranking was based on raw vote weight — the total ADM staked by all voters who voted for each delegate. This allowed large holders to dominate the active delegate set disproportionately.

  The fairSystem upgrade replaces raw vote with productivity-adjusted votesWeight for delegate ranking, active-delegate selection, and approval calculation:

  • Each voter's balance is divided proportionally across all delegates they voted for (so voting for more delegates dilutes each vote).
  • The resulting per-delegate weight is then multiplied by that delegate's productivity (the fraction of their scheduled block slots that they successfully forged).
  • Delegates with low productivity receive less effective voting weight, incentivizing consistent block production.
  • The approval percentage shown for a delegate is calculated as their adjusted votesWeight divided by the current token supply.

  This makes voting influence fairer while keeping delegate ordering deterministic.

• Pre-activation behavior

  Before height 4,359,465, delegate ranking uses raw vote totals. API responses for delegates include the vote field.

• Post-activation behavior

  From height 4,359,465 onward, delegate ranking uses votesWeight. API responses include the votesWeight field for ranking and approval calculations.

spaceship

• Target block for activation: 100,000,000 (mainnet)

• Description

  Transactions can now include a new optional field: timestampMs.

  • timestampMs is a client-side timestamp in milliseconds, using the same ADAMANT epoch as timestamp (seconds since September 2, 2017, 17:00:00 UTC).
  • It records when the transaction was created on the client side, providing sub-second ordering precision.
  • This field is optional. Transactions without it remain valid.
  • If included, timestampMs must be within the same ADAMANT second as timestamp (i.e., Math.floor(timestampMs / 1000) === timestamp). Transactions that violate this constraint are rejected.

  Before this upgrade, nodes strip timestampMs from transactions during normalization to preserve compatibility. After activation, nodes preserve and return timestampMs for transactions that include it.

  This change improves the display order of messages and events in messenger applications.

• Example

  {
    "timestamp": 212457600,
    "timestampMs": 212457600456,
    "signature": "..."
  }

• Client compatibility note

  Historical transactions and transactions from older clients may have timestampMs: null. Clients should prefer timestampMs for ordering when it is present and fall back to timestamp * 1000 otherwise.

  See Core Concepts — Timestamps for the conversion formulas.