Chapter 2
Mechanisms of Consensus
On February 24, 2018, a speaker from the Bitcoin community, posted an open letter on Twitter calling on the community to revise the consensus mechanism. When this news came out, it caused a sensation. Many Bitcoin enthusiasts spoke sharply, saying that this speaker doesn’t understand Bitcoin at all and asked him to abdicate.
Why did this proposal to change the consensus mechanism lead to intense discussions in the whole cryptocommunity? Let us first understand what a consensus mechanism is.
The word “consensus” is presumably familiar to everyone. Different groups can work together, necessarily because they share a common belief. So, in the world of blockchain, what does the term “consensus” mean? Why do we ...
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