MultiversX Supernova Decouples Consensus from Execution

High-performance blockchain networks often struggle with scaling bottlenecks due to their synchronous architecture. Validators must execute transactions before confirming their validity, which can slow down computation and constrain the network's speed.

MultiversX has addressed this issue by decoupling consensus from execution in its Supernova protocol upgrade, now live on testnet. The new design allows validators to verify block proposals without executing them first, while execution continues asynchronously in the background.

The resulting output is then referenced and notarized in the next block header, about 600 milliseconds after the proposal was made. This decoupling creates an immediate validity problem: the network must determine whether a proposed transaction will remain valid before execution catches up.