Homework on Consensus - Questions

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#2391
  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    All nodes in the blockchain network must agree in order to establish the truth.
  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    Truth is not reached by consensus but rather by trust.
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#2392

Question 1
What it means in blockchain is that agreements are made by all participating nodes and this helps to protect all the nodes. All nodes have have been encouraged to deal with the truth because they have been conditioned by the rules.

Question 2
Central database could be written to by all members and also data could be deleted from it as long as a member has the permission to do that. In a nutshell, there is no agreement or rule binding members.

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#2393

1.What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
Consensus determine by make sure the all New transactions are legitimate and are following the network flow

2.How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
In a central database you can only look up a transaction but you dont have to
agree with it cuase it private database

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#2394
  1. It means that a network of computers all work together to verify a piece of information, because they all have a copy of it. This makes it very difficult to cheat.
  2. This is different because with a central database, there’s only 1 entity to verify the information. Thus if that once source is compromised, all truth is compromised.
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#2395

  1. It means the truth is decided by and agreed by the collective of people on the network.

  2. This system is trustless, therefore there is only a single copy that cannot be corrupted. In a centralised system, there is always the chance every transaction may be tampered with or altered.

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#2396
  1. Several individuals are incentivized to very transactions on the blockchain/supply chain
  2. On a centralized database data can be corrupted it can take longer and can be difficult to audit independently
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#2397
  1. It removes the trust, with consensus, makes people play by the rules in order for them to succeed and any truths, is decided by the people.
  2. A central database is controlled by one authority, thus it makes the rules and forces people to play by them.
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#2398

Hi everybody!! I dont speak english natively, so excuse my lack of vocabulary and repeated sentences

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    It means that the blockchain is agreed between consensus, be it PoW or PoS or whatever. Because every node in the network has the a copy of the blockchain, everybody knows what is true in the past, because the blockchain is inmutable (I mean it can be changed, but if one copy of the blockchain differs from others, then everybody will know that you changed it)

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    It is different, because a central database in controlled by a central entity, which is the case of banks, credit cards issuers networks and so on. In case this central database is corrupted, how can we know if the transacations stored in that database took place or not??

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#2399

  1. blockchain consensus means that multiple decentralized nodes must agree on the integrity of the data before it can be accepted and recorded. No single authority can make the decision by itself. Concensus is the basis of a trustless system.

  2. In a central database, the database owner decides what data gets added and deleted. it is the sole arbitrator of data integrity. Therefore the trust is placed on the owner of database, hence not a trustless system.

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#2400

  1. Consensus determines the truth - this is because blockchain relies on the decentralized network to verify all transactions and events, rather than a single entity. Because an agreement is reached by all parties in the network instead, this creates a consensus - which is necessary for provenance.

  2. Truth determined in a central database is different as it is literally just one party that says - I think this is true/false or good/bad.

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#2401

1.) What we mean when we say that " in blockchain, consensus determine the truth" is that we have a trustless verification system wherein users of the network are compensated for the work of verifying transactions within the blockchain as true or false to maintain the integrity of the blockchain.

2.) This is different from the way truth is determined in a central database because a central database is controlled by a single entity or organization and there is no way for the users to verify information themselves they have to “trust” the entity or organization in charge.

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#2402
  1. We can determine the truth by looking at the block chain and all its transactions in order to verify.

2.Its different because the truth isn’t determined by a single people its determined by thousands of computers in a database.

1 Like
#2403
  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    each node has to “accept” the validity of a transaction, and the network has to come to an agreement (or “consensus”) about the decision to accept the transaction. For example, in Bitcoin, the network has to make sure that an individual making a transaction has enough funds to spend, and if every node is in agreement, than the transaction is accepted.
  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    In central databases, the public would have to trust that the supply chain is being honest about what they’re reporting. For example, if a company within a supply chain is claiming to use “better” ingredient to enhance their services, we would have to get confirmation from that company’s suppliers that the ingredients are in fact “better.” The supplychain is more of a supply network, and there is never any consensus that’s reported openly, or that is easily verifiable.
1 Like
#2404
  1. the computers in the block chain all determine together if the information is accurate.
  2. you don’t have to trust, you verify through the decentralized block chain.
1 Like
#2405

Homework on Consensus - Questions

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

That all nodes/computers have to be in consensus about the transaction history and it has to be the same for everyone.

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

In a central database there is no outside entity with which to verify anything (kind of like Godel’s theorem, I suppose? somewhat related?). Truth is determined by this central authority.

1 Like
#2406

Transaction is recorded in the blockchain is only accepted if multiple devices in the network concede to it being true

With central database there is only one entity determining what is true or not

1 Like
#2407

1 al nodes agree
2 decision by single authority

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#2408

  1. Within the blockchain , all supportive computers on the network can verify transactions by means of point of origin , ingredients, supply that are true. They are agreed in the nodes to be verified and accepted.

  2. It is different in a database because other 3rd parties are involved. You cannot trace the actually ingredients from those 3rd parties. Claiming by trust that those products are legit.

1 Like
#2409

I’m not familiar with it, but from a quick search online it seems it applies more to math than human beings :slight_smile:

#2410

Bitcoin is VERY much related to math and math is very much related to human beings, so idk what your point is.