Permissionless Proof-of-Work consensus architecture. Operational decentralization is an ongoing engineering objective. SOST distinguishes consensus decentralization (which blocks are valid is decided by protocol rules, not an administrator) from operational decentralization (nodes, peers, bootstrap, infrastructure and software distribution). The figures below are measured live where possible and labelled by how they are known. No single server, operator, website, miner or organization should be required for SOST to keep validating and extending its chain.
| Dependency | Today | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Bootstrap DNS seeds | seed-eu / seed-apac / seed-us / seed.sostcore.com — all under one project-controlled domain (single DNS dependency) | BEING REDUCED |
| Primary node | one project-operated VPS (Germany); a Singapore node is planned | BEING REDUCED |
| Public RPC gateway | 1 instance (sostcore.com/rpc/public) — read + broadcast; wallet/admin methods auth-gated | SINGLE SOURCE |
| Explorer | 1 instance (sostcore.com/sost-explorer.html) — observing only; the chain survives if it is down | SINGLE SOURCE |
| Release distribution | GitHub releases; a reproducible build recipe enables independent hash verification | EXPANDING |
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Permissionless Proof-of-Work consensus (ConvergenceX / SbPoW + cASERT) | IMPLEMENTED |
| DTD anti-dominance eligibility gate (≥10% of last 288 excluded when ≥11 distinct miners) + SbPoW signed-miner gate | IMPLEMENTED |
| Persistent peer store + address gossip (so nodes keep peers across restarts and learn peers from each other) | NOT IN AUDITED CODE — PLANNED |
| Deterministic, height-triggered activation (e.g. V30000 at #30,000 — no operator switches on consensus) | IMPLEMENTED |
| Reproducible build recipe (independent hash verification of v30000) | PUBLISHED |
| More independent public nodes & miners; multi-source peer discovery | IN PROGRESS |
| Independent third-party seed operators / multiple bootstrap paths | PLANNED |
| Singapore infrastructure node | PLANNED |
| ~24 h primary-infrastructure independence test (kill the primary node, verify the network continues) | PLANNED — NOT EXECUTED |
| External independent security audit | NOT COMPLETED |
docs/decentralization/ (reproducible build, bootstrap audit, run-a-node, mine-SOST, infra-independence test plan, S14 roadmap).We separate the quality of the architecture we are building from the real maturity of a network that still has few operators and little time under real attack. The star ratings below are an orientative comparative judgement, not a scientific metric.
| Area |  SOST |
 Bitcoin |
 Ethereum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technology / architecture | ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Software / protocol security | ⭐⭐⭐½☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ |
| Real decentralization | ⭐⭐½☆☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| P2P resilience / autonomy | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Adversarial testing | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Maturity / years under real attack | ⭐☆☆☆☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Operator / infrastructure diversity | ⭐⭐☆☆☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ |
| Release verifiability * | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Overall today | ⭐⭐⭐½☆ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ |
* SOST has reproducible builds, verifiable SHA256 hashes and package self-verification; a signed release + independent distribution are still to be finalized. Stars are a comparative orientation, not a measurement.
These SOST notes are not theoretical. The current candidate has passed 122/122 consensus tests, SACS V2, SEC2, OLD↔NEW compatibility, partition/heal, SOSTCORE-DISAPPEARS 5/5, fuzzing, ASan/UBSan/LeakSan, P2P adversarial/eclipse/poisoning, reproducible build and package verification. The testing even uncovered a real remote-DoS (SIGPIPE) before release — now fixed; the follow-up disconnect-storm keeps node, RPC and file descriptors stable.
A relatively simple castle that has been under attack for many years. Countless guards, independent gates and copies all over the world. If a company, a website or a server disappears, Bitcoin doesn't even notice. That is why it sits at the top on security and decentralization.
A far more sophisticated castle — more rooms, machines and possibilities than Bitcoin. That gives it enormous technology, but also more things to watch. Thousands of nodes, developers, clients and operators, and years of real-world operation.
A technologically ambitious castle, but much younger. The consensus is permissionless, yet until recently too many operational things could still depend on our own infrastructure. We are now removing those dependencies one by one — and testing that they are really gone.
BEFORE (too much depended on us) TARGET (autonomous mesh)
SOSTCORE node ───── node
│ │ \ / │
┌───────┼───────┐ │ \ / │
node node node node ─── node
\ /
independent seedseeds.txt. We ran a lab test that turned SOSTCORE off entirely: the chain kept going, a new node joined via seeds.txt, a restarted node recovered peers, and consensus needed no sostcore.com — SOSTCORE-DISAPPEARS 5/5 PASS. That is a major technical decentralization step.peer connects
↓
closes violently
↓
node tries to write
↓
SIGPIPE
↓
NODE DIESpeer closes
↓
write/send fails
↓
EPIPE
↓
peer dropped
↓
NODE STAYS ALIVEBecause "the software allows decentralization" is not the same as "the network is actually decentralized". We've done much of the first. The second needs people and infrastructure we don't control: if nearly all nodes, seeds, domains, the VPS, the mirror and almost all mining are ours, the network does not yet have Bitcoin-grade decentralization.
We're doing a lot right — SEC2, SACS V2, fuzzing, sanitizers, eclipse/poisoning/partition tests, reproducible builds, package verification, rollback — and these found the real SIGPIPE bug before release. But Bitcoin and Ethereum have endured years of real attacks with huge money at stake. You cannot manufacture 10 years of attacks in 10 days. The missing pieces — independent audit + real time under attack — cannot be fully accelerated.
SHORT TERM (V30000 + independent infra) MID TERM (operators+seeds+miners+ASN+mirrors+audit) TECHNOLOGY ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ TECHNOLOGY ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ SECURITY ⭐⭐⭐⭐ SECURITY ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ DECENTRALIZATION ⭐⭐⭐ DECENTRALIZATION ⭐⭐⭐⭐
SOST is well advanced in engineering; now it has to turn that engineering into a network that can live without us.
Disclaimer. The star ratings are an orientative comparative judgement, not a scientific measurement. SOST does not claim to be "as secure as Bitcoin" or "fully decentralized". The V30000 FINAL CANDIDATE (commit 7b9ac273) is under test and not yet deployed; 78fefb67 remains the known-good baseline (which also carries the now-fixed SIGPIPE issue). Bitcoin and Ethereum names/logos are used for comparison only. No consensus, binary, activation height, SEC2 or SACS was changed by this page — documentation only.