Exemplary systems and methods for the addition of a block to a permissioned blockchain using efficient consensus are disclosed. The methods and systems may include receiving transaction messages having transaction values from consensus nodes and generating a Merkle root for the transaction messages using transaction references and a proposed block header having the Merkle root and a hash of the header of the most recently added block in a blockchain. The proposed block header may be hashed and transmitted with a proposal message having a digital signature to auditing nodes. A response message accepting the digital signature may be received and an accept message may be transmitted to the auditing nodes and a confirmation message may be transmitted to the consensus-nodes. A new block may be written to the blockchain having the transaction values from the transaction messages and a header including the proposed block header and digital signature.