HotStuff

HotStuff is a Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus algorithm, specifically designed to function efficiently in a partially synchronous network setting. It was developed by researchers at VMWare as a solution for blockchains seeking to improve scalability and latency issues.

HotStuff's innovative design leverages the concept of "chain structure" to aggregate signatures, which significantly reduces communication overhead. This allows for more efficient decision making, as participants only need to wait for a single round of communication to confirm a proposal, rather than multiple rounds.

One of the key features of HotStuff is its linearity - the number of messages that need to be sent grows linearly with the number of participants. This allows for more participants to be involved in the consensus process without significantly affecting the system's performance.

Another notable feature of HotStuff is its flexibility. It can be adapted to work with a variety of block proposal mechanisms, and can easily integrate with blockchain systems using smart contracts.

HotStuff's robustness, efficiency, and flexibility have made it an attractive option for a number of blockchain projects. Most notably, it's the basis for the consensus protocol of Facebook's Diem (formerly Libra) blockchain project.