A PoH entry with zero transactions that advances the clock. There are 64 ticks per slot by default, each representing a fixed number of SHA-256 hash iterations. Ticks establish the passage of time even when no transactions are being processed, maintaining the PoH chain continuity.
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A PoH entry with zero transactions that advances the clock. There are 64 ticks per slot by default, each representing a fixed number of SHA-256 hash iterations. Ticks establish the passage of time even when no transactions are being processed, maintaining the PoH chain continuity.
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Think of it as part of the chain machinery that keeps ordering, execution, or consensus moving.
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Consensus, leader rotation, slots, epochs, and the runtime.
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Tick (tick) Category: Core Protocol Definition: A PoH entry with zero transactions that advances the clock. There are 64 ticks per slot by default, each representing a fixed number of SHA-256 hash iterations. Ticks establish the passage of time even when no transactions are being processed, maintaining the PoH chain continuity. Related: Entry, Proof of History (PoH), Slot
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An ordered unit within a block containing a mix of PoH ticks and transaction batches. Each entry includes a PoH hash, a count of hashes since the previous entry, and zero or more transactions. Entries without transactions are tick entries that advance the PoH clock; entries with transactions prove those transactions occurred between two points in time.
A clock mechanism that cryptographically proves the passage of time between events. PoH uses a sequential SHA-256 hash chain where each output becomes the next input, creating a verifiable ordering of events without requiring consensus. The leader produces ~400,000 hashes per slot (~400ms), and any validator can verify the sequence in parallel, enabling Solana's high throughput by removing the need for validators to agree on time.
A time window during which a designated leader validator can produce a block. Each slot lasts approximately 400 milliseconds. Slots are numbered sequentially from genesis and grouped into epochs of 432,000 slots (~2-3 days). Not every slot produces a block—a skipped slot means the leader was offline or too slow.
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The ordinal position of a tick in the ledger, counting from the first tick of the genesis block. With 64 ticks per slot, tick height advances at a faster rate than slot number and provides finer-grained time resolution within the PoH chain. Tick height is used internally by the validator for PoH timing and slot boundary detection.
Solana's block propagation protocol inspired by BitTorrent. Instead of the leader sending a full block to every validator, Turbine organizes validators into a layered tree and propagates shreds through successive tiers. Each node forwards shreds to a small fanout set, reducing the leader's bandwidth requirement from O(n) to O(log n).
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An ordered unit within a block containing a mix of PoH ticks and transaction batches. Each entry includes a PoH hash, a count of hashes since the previous entry, and zero or more transactions. Entries without transactions are tick entries that advance the PoH clock; entries with transactions prove those transactions occurred between two points in time.
A clock mechanism that cryptographically proves the passage of time between events. PoH uses a sequential SHA-256 hash chain where each output becomes the next input, creating a verifiable ordering of events without requiring consensus. The leader produces ~400,000 hashes per slot (~400ms), and any validator can verify the sequence in parallel, enabling Solana's high throughput by removing the need for validators to agree on time.
A time window during which a designated leader validator can produce a block. Each slot lasts approximately 400 milliseconds. Slots are numbered sequentially from genesis and grouped into epochs of 432,000 slots (~2-3 days). Not every slot produces a block—a skipped slot means the leader was offline or too slow.
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A clock mechanism that cryptographically proves the passage of time between events. PoH uses a sequential SHA-256 hash chain where each output becomes the next input, creating a verifiable ordering of events without requiring consensus. The leader produces ~400,000 hashes per slot (~400ms), and any validator can verify the sequence in parallel, enabling Solana's high throughput by removing the need for validators to agree on time.
Solana's custom BFT consensus algorithm built on top of Proof of History. Tower BFT uses PoH as a clock to reduce communication overhead in traditional PBFT from O(n²) to O(n). Validators vote on forks with exponentially increasing lockout periods—each consecutive vote doubles the lockout, making rollbacks progressively more expensive. A fork is finalized when it reaches supermajority (66.7%+ of stake).
A time window during which a designated leader validator can produce a block. Each slot lasts approximately 400 milliseconds. Slots are numbered sequentially from genesis and grouped into epochs of 432,000 slots (~2-3 days). Not every slot produces a block—a skipped slot means the leader was offline or too slow.
A set of entries produced by a leader during a single slot. A block contains transactions bundled into entries, each with a PoH hash proving ordering. Blocks are broken into shreds for network propagation via Turbine. Maximum block size is limited by compute units (48M CU cap per block) rather than byte size.