Tipset

A tipset is a structure used by Filecoin in place of the single block found at each height in most blockchains. Filecoin divides time into rounds, called epochs, of about 30 seconds, and in each epoch several storage providers may be elected to produce a block, with the chance of election depending on the storage power they contribute. Valid blocks from the same epoch that build on exactly the same parent blocks are grouped into one tipset, and the next round's blocks point back to that whole set. This design lets the network include work from several block producers in each round rather than discarding all but one, which wastes less effort and helps throughput. When different tipsets compete, nodes follow the chain with the greatest weight under the network's fork-choice rule. Tipsets are part of Filecoin's broader consensus mechanism.