Homework on Consensus - Questions

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#2331
  1. Several parties agree together rather the transaction is valid by truth to be put on the block-chain.

2.Several parties agreeing on something to create trust-less verification of transaction with the incentive created by being honest. For example once verified by one company providing the goods, it cannot be double verified by another company on that same product. As a central data base can double input and make a mistake by human error.

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#2332

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    It means that several blockchain nodes are queried to come up with a decision on what is the truth. The same answer needs to be constantly the same among the nodes.

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    Central database needs to take a decision based on that single database instance. That data cannot be trusted as the answer could have been modified.

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#2333

What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
Because all the compurers in the blockchain network need to verify and confirm all new transactions and this means that the process of decission-making is decentralised.

How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
In a central databse there is no consensus, that means that the database can be alteraded without the possibility to trace the changes.
That means also that we need to rely in trust, because it is not possible to verify the veracity of the database.

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#2334

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    In blockchain consensus is based upon trustlessness on the principal that within it all nodes are incentivised to tell the truth and recieves for verifiying a transaction is legitimate or true and any false transactions are penalised therefore excluded from the blockchain. all nodes must agree on a decision and come to a consensus.

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    Truth reached within a central database is based on trust which only suits the creator or administrator of the central database, therefore preventing consensus or verification.

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#2335
  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    Consensus is group of parties all verifying a transaction. It allows all parties to view transaction, verify the transaction to be valid and then assuming it is valid, to be entered into a block entering the chain.
  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database? A central database receives all information from one source. If one source is corrupted, all following transaction will be corrupt. Central database is only as transparent as the source responsible for said data.
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#2336
  • What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth? Everyone in the process is incentivized or even punished depending on whether they help verify accuracy or not. Truth becomes verified.
  • How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database? There really aren’t ways to truly verify in a central database as things can be altered and you may never know if your sources are accurately reporting or not.
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#2337

Consensus determines truth with blockchain by using a decentralized network of nodes to determine if the transactions or information are in agreement with the ledger. This creates a trust less system because no one can control or manipulate data on the blockchain.

Central databases rely on information provided by third parties and can be easily manipulated with bad information. Companies using a central database rely heavily on the amount of trust they have with suppliers and partners that may benefit from giving them false information.

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#2338
  1. All of the nodes have a copy of the blockchain transaction and are in agreement.
  2. A central database will have only one copy. Truth in a central database comes down to if you trust the company that has the database. Blockchain in trustless. You do not need to trust the source of the information since it will be the same on all nodes when we have consensus.
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#2339

Homework on Consensus - Questions
1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
Each database has a copy of the public ledger.
Each database is decentralised.
When a transaction is added to the block chain, the decision to accept the transaction has to be made “together”, created by consensus.
The network of database will reject any transaction that is flawed.
There is incentive to being honest and “penalty” for being dishonest.

2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
In a central database, information is controlled and possibly manipulated by a central authority, rendering the information unreliable and inaccurate.

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#2340
  1. Because several nodes must agree and confirm that an addition to the ledger is indeed true before added to.
  2. A central database can manipulated at will by the controlling entity and therefore must be audited by a third party which in turn must be trusted to tell the truth as well, hence we can never be sure about the accuracy or truth of such a ledger.
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#2341

Homework on Consensus - Questions

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    This means that every decision in the blockchain is collectively made by everyone (all the different nodes in the network) and since everyone gets financial incentive for being honest, they will all tell the truth. These decisions are double checked in the network before they are approved through incentive.

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    In a central database, truth is determined by some central authority. There is no way of verifying anything; all you have to do is trust and follow some set of instructions.

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#2342

In blockchain, to say that consensus determines truth refers to the fact that anything added to the blockchain has been unanimously confirmed by multiple parties. Everyone agrees on what is true/how to proceed. These parties are incentivized to report truthfully, further demonstrating it’s accuracy.
A decentralized database is “trustless,” meaning it does not require you to trust another party; you can verify something’s accuracy because the blockchain is transparent, and other third parties are cross checking and verifying as well. Within a centralized database, data is uploaded from different sources independently and can be manipulated or deleted. In blockchain, once something has reached consensus, it is now true to the blockchain.

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#2343

consensus is the common understanding of things. Players in the network are incetivised to tell the truth, in blockchain the honest players come to an consensus of what is true, thus consensus determines the truth.

In a central database the “truth” is determined by the owner of that central database, it is not a group consensus

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#2344
  1. In blockchain, consensus determines the truth because all decisions are agreed upon by several parties which allows transactions to be checked and verified without involving trust.
  2. This is different from how truth is determined in a central database because no single party can make a decision without anyone else having a say.
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#2345

  1. It means that the decentralized network has determined as a group that the information in the block is correct. They are incentivized by the system in someway to do this verification.

  2. Truth is a standard DB would need to be verified by the owner of that system by some kind of manual audit and comparing of information from multiply DB/systems that do not function together.

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#2346

Simply, all the computers get together and give a thumbs up that the information is true and matches with any previous information on the blockchain. They all agree :slightly_smiling_face:

I’m not sure that there is truth in a central database. It pays to be corrupt. With a decentralised database there are more eyes on the ball. It pays to be honest

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#2347
  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?

Consensus is the agreement of the network on state changes based on most recent transactions. If the network agrees a transaction is good it gets added to the ledger and if the network finds it to be false it gets removed. Incentives are given for determining the truth in the ledger.

  1. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?

In a central database, individuals can chose what is truth. If the database is corrupted then truth is altered.

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#2348
  1. That a network of computers verifies transactions as well as detect abnormal activities through essentially talking to each other and not adding it to the blockchain until they all agree.
  2. Through incentivized and decentralized digital means.
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#2349

It means that nodes on the blockchain have to agree with each other to determine the truth. Agreement leads to consensus thus verifying the information in the database.

In a central database the consensus method is not used,maybe a individual, person or organization is inputting information. Without a verifiable consensus method this information could be corrupted, changed and configured.

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#2350

Homework on Consensus - Answers

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determines the truth? This means that everyone in the network has to be in agreement as to the validity of the transaction whatever that may be. If everyone doesn’t have the same information then the transaction can not be verified therefore it can not be true.

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database? In a central database, you have to trust that the information is not being manipulated by the person or persons controlling the database. There is no way to verify the truthfulness of the data in question.

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