Arriving At Consensus

Arriving At Consensus

Created On : 20/08/2021     Updated On : 02/09/2021     Read Time : 10 min

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Arriving At Consensus


A consensus mechanism may be a fault-tolerant technique utilized in computer and blockchain systems to determine the required agreement among distributed processes or multi-agent systems, like cryptocurrencies, on one data value or one state of the network. It is handy for keeping records, among other things.

The proof-of-work (PoW) technique, which is utilized by Bitcoin, is the most well-known way of obtaining consensus on a blockchain. In contrast to the PBFT method, PoW does not require all network parties (all nodes) to present their unique findings in order for a consensus to be achieved.

PoW is a system that employs a "hash function" to establish conditions in which a single person can declare their conclusions regarding the provided information, and those conclusions can subsequently be independently confirmed by all other system participants. False conclusions are avoided via the hash function's parameters, which guarantee that false information fails to calculate in an appropriate manner.

In the Bitcoin system, the member that publicly validated the information on behalf of the network is rewarded with freshly produced ('mined') Bitcoin’s in exchange for its participation (which is costly in terms of energy cost and computer resources).

As a result, the act of looking for valid ‘hashes' (solutions to the ‘hash function' produced by the message input) is referred to as ‘mining.' Incentivizing network involvement promotes wide engagement, which results in a more resilient network and a safer blockchain (database).