While the main network uses proof-of-work (PoW) to secure the blockchain, Geth also supports the the 'Clique' proof-of-authority (PoA) consensus algorithm as an alternative for private networks. Clique is strongly recommended for private testnets because PoA is far less resource-intensive than PoW. Clique is currently used as the consensus algorithm in public testnets such as [Rinkeby](https://www.rinkeby.io) and [Görli](https://goerli.net). The key differences between the consensus algorithms available in Geth are:
While the main network uses proof-of-work (PoW) to secure the blockchain, Geth also supports the the 'Clique' proof-of-authority (PoA) consensus algorithm as an alternative for private networks. Clique is strongly recommended for private testnets because PoA is far less resource-intensive than PoW. The key differences between the consensus algorithms available in Geth are:
The method returns a single `Binary` consisting the return value of the executed contract call.
The method returns a single `Binary` consisting the return value of the executed contract call.
#### Simple example
#### Simple example
**note that this example uses the Rinkeby network, which is now deprecated**
With a synced Rinkeby node with RPC exposed on localhost (`geth --rinkeby --http`) we can make a call against the [CheckpointOracle](https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0xebe8efa441b9302a0d7eaecc277c09d20d684540) to retrieve the list of administrators:
With a synced Rinkeby node with RPC exposed on localhost (`geth --rinkeby --http`) we can make a call against the [CheckpointOracle](https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0xebe8efa441b9302a0d7eaecc277c09d20d684540) to retrieve the list of administrators: