What are Execution Shards on MultiversX?
Execution shards on MultiversX are core components of its adaptive state sharding architecture. Here’s an overview of their role and significance:
Definition & Role
- Execution shards are independent sections of the blockchain network, each responsible for processing a subset of transactions, smart contracts, and maintaining a portion of the overall blockchain state.
- Each shard functions like a mini-blockchain, executing and storing transactions in parallel with others. This structure enables high throughput and scalability by distributing workload across multiple shards1.
Key Features
- Parallel Processing: Each shard processes its own transactions and smart contracts concurrently, greatly improving network efficiency and capacity12.
- Adaptive State Sharding: The network dynamically reorganizes shards based on load and node participation, resizing them to maintain optimal performance1.
- Asynchronous Cross-Shard Execution: When a transaction or smart contract involves multiple shards (i.e., interacting accounts reside in different shards), MultiversX uses an asynchronous model to ensure actions are processed without state locking or cumbersome coordination. Calls within the same shard execute synchronously, while those across shards are handled asynchronously31.
- Horizontal Scaling: Adding more execution shards linearly increases the throughput of the network — for instance, increasing the number of shards can take throughput from 30,000 transactions per second (TPS) with 3 shards to over 60,000 TPS with 6 shards2.
Security & Efficiency
- MultiversX regularly shuffles nodes between shards to reduce potential collusion and ensure security1.
- All shards communicate through an abstraction layer allowing for seamless cross-shard interaction and a unified user and developer experience.
Summary
Execution shards are fundamental to MultiversX’s ability to provide scalable, high-performance blockchain infrastructure, allowing for parallel transaction processing, dynamic resource allocation, and seamless cross-shard operation.