Add Flare System Protocol concept page FSC-219

docs/tech/flare-systems-protocol.md

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# Flare Systems Protocol
+
+The Flare Systems Protocol (FSP) is the core protocol that provides basic functionality to support current and future Flare protocols.
+
+By taking care of tasks common to the rest of Flare protocols, the FSP greatly simplifies them and the dapps that interact with them.
+
+Interaction with the FSP depends on your role:
+
+* As a Flare user, common activities such as governance voting, delegating, and staking do not require direct access to the FSP.
+* As an infrastructure provider, access is required because you participate in decentralized data acquisition and validation for all Flare protocols. An update to infrastructure provider procedures is in progress.
+* As a developer, writing dapps requires access to the FSP, which simplifies development by using a similar approach for all Flare protocols. A more detailed introduction for developers is in progress.
+
+The FSP manages the results of infrastructure providers' votes and rewards in a way that brings scalability to Flare protocols.
+With the FSP, only a representation of the data validation results (called a [Merkle Root](glossary.md#merkle_root) hash) is stored on-chain, so it is more lightweight and scalable than, for example, storing all prices for the FTSO.
+Because only the hashes are stored on-chain, applications retrieve the actual data directly from infrastructure providers and then verify it using the on-chain hash.
+
+## Flare System Protocol Components
+
+The FSP coordinates several components, including smart contracts, indexers for easier access to the [C- and P-chain](./flare.md#flare-chains) states, the Flare Systems Client running on all infrastructure providers, and the data protocols that they support.
+
+<figure markdown>
+  ![Flare Systems Protocol Architecture](flare-systems-protocol-architecture.png){ loading=lazy .allow-zoom }
+  <figcaption>Flare Systems Protocol architecture.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+## Data Protocols
+
+These protocols receive data from other blockchains and internet APIs:
+
+* The [Flare Time-Series Oracle (FTSO)](./ftso.md).
+* The [Data Connector](./state-connector.md) (formerly the State Connector).
+
+The FSP has also been designed to accommodate future data protocols, such as Fast FTSO and Stake mirroring.
+
+## Flare Systems Client
+
+Each infrastructure provider runs an instance of the Flare Systems Client, which aggregates their votes for all Flare protocols and submits them to the Flare network in a single transaction.
+The option to relay them to other EVM chains is being developed.
+
+The Flare systems client provides these functions:
+
+* Signing: Signs transactions on behalf of data protocols before submitting them to the blockchain.
+* Scheduling: Schedules all transactions from off-chain services.
+* Validation: Submits infrastructure providers' votes each voting round.
+* Finalization: Sends finalization transactions on behalf of infrastructure providers when enough signatures (votes) have been collected and therefore the voting round ends.
+* Rewarding: Aggregates reward calculation results for the final rewards result for each reward epoch (currently under development).

docs/tech/index.md

@@ -11,10 +11,11 @@ Select one of the topics below:
 
 * [What Is Flare?](./flare.md)
 * [Automatic Claiming](./automatic-claiming.md)
-* [The FlareDrop](./the-flaredrop.md)
-* [Flare Beta](./flare-beta.md)
-* [Flare API Portal](./api-portal.md)
 * [FAssets](./fassets/index.md)
+* [Flare API Portal](./api-portal.md)
+* [Flare Beta](./flare-beta.md)
+* [Flare Systems Protocol](./flare-systems-protocol.md)
+* [The FlareDrop](./the-flaredrop.md)
 * [FTSO](./ftso.md)
 * [Governance](./governance.md)
 * [Personal Delegation Accounts](./personal-delegation-account.md)

mkdocs.yml

@@ -350,6 +350,7 @@ nav:
     - tech/index.md
     - tech/automatic-claiming.md
     - tech/flare-beta.md
+    - tech/flare-systems-protocol.md
     - tech/governance.md
     - tech/personal-delegation-account.md
     - tech/the-flaredrop.md