System Architecture

Leviathan is an innovative scaling solution for the Cardano blockchain, focusing on leveraging account abstraction to enhance functionality and enable the system’s unbreakable transaction chaining.

Central to Leviathan's innovative architecture is the concept of account abstraction, which is pivotal for unlocking the protocol's latency improvements. This abstraction forms part of a comprehensive framework that restores the composability of Cardano protocols. Challenges such as the breaking of atomic composability in DEX transactions by batchers and latency issues in applications requiring rapid confirmations are effectively resolved within this unified framework.

Even with the data throughput constraints of the settlement layer, Leviathan allows for unrestricted state growth and instant finality, facilitated by a sequencer network. This network enables the implementation of a second layer through the account abstraction model, decoupling user actions from their accounts and ensuring transaction integrity through deterministic and immutable inputs.

Leviathan distinguishes itself from solutions like Hydra by maintaining continuous equivalence with the base layer, even under compromised assumptions. Its design ensures that, in the worst-case scenario of a compromised sequencer network, the system will halt without surrendering custody of funds, adhering to the spending rules of the L1 layer.

This system architecture document focuses exclusively on the Leviathan scaling solution. It outlines the protocol's essential components, their interrelationships, and the underlying rationale for these design choices.