Homework on Consensus - Questions

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#5688
  1. Consensus is reached thanks to economic incentives.
  2. It is a trustless system. Whereas in a central database, there is an authority who may not be truthful.
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#5689

  1. Consensus determines the truth because there is not a possibility that one participant is lying due to the favt that every action has to be authorized by the other participants.

  2. In a standard database there is an authority that can alternate the data/information and it is centralized in one place (server).

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#5690
  1. it means the everyone is on one point which is truth. in block chain all network is connected and talk each other so the decision made on which everyone is agree.
    2, in decentralise database is work like everyone is checking cross checking that the transaction should be true. if some thing is wrong by consensus it will be kick out from the database
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#5691

  1. It means that no individual party gets to be the arbiter of the official state of affairs on the blockchain. Instead, this is determined through a process in which each individual (eventually) comes to the same conclusion, based on pre-written guidelines and proper incentives.

  2. In a central database, the official state of affairs is determined by one actor or aligned group of actors, and the rest of the participants must trust this for the system to function day-to-day.

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#5692
  1. It means that when all the nodes agree upon the transaction that means it’s truthful and gets added.
  2. In blockchain it’s trustless and in a central database there is an authority that determines the truth.
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#5693

[quote=“ivan, post:1, topic:8425, full:true”]
Homework on Consensus - Questions

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

Blockchain technology operates via the interconnection of multiple computer nodes within a larger decentralized network, with each location containing an exact copy of the blockchain in order to consistently verify the authenticity and accuracy of all its data (both past and incoming in real-time).

Doing so allows for all data to be simultaneously verified/agreed upon by all nodes involved in the decentralized network, thus requiring a form of agreed-upon consensus in order to validate any new data and conversely invalidate any erroneous or spurious transactions (potentially aiming to sabotage/hack the chain).

Additionally, consensuses provide the added benefit of only being able to implement new operational protocols specific majorities being reached amongst all nodes of the network, depending on the blockchain. Based on a particular project, the consensus method may be adjusted to reflect how network users wish for their blockchain to truly operate (whether via a certain percentage of the majority being achieved, supermajority, an absolute majority, or any other form).

Therefore, and based on the above, blockchain consensuses allow attaining irrefutable truth by enabling multiple actors to consistently verify the truthfulness/authenticity of the data contained within their chains.

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

Central databases solely rely on one particular location in a network that contains the only copy of the database file it pertains to preserve.

Doing so allows for greater risks of hacking and/or malicious tampering (whether coming from external actors or even from within).

In other words, the truthfulness of the data it claims to store it put at significant risk of being modified, thus throwing back into question how indubitably reliable it is (users would always have to bear in mind the possibility that the data isn’t guaranteed to be entirely truthful or accurate).

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#5694
  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determines 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 discarded. It determines the truth because of economic incentives.
  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    Because in a normal database, a transaction can be removed or erased. If the database crashes, data can be lost. And it is probably much more difficult to trace back a transaction, it doesn’t have the same simplicity as with blockchain. In a central database, truth would be determined by a central authority, not by the consensus of a network.
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#5695

  1. It means that through a game theory designed protocol, participants are incentivized to act according to the rules, which means that a general agreement is needed to take a decission.

  2. It’s different because there’s a need for general consensus to make decisions, whereas in centralized database this decissions can be made exclusively by the DB administrators.

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#5696

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determines the truth?
    Blockchain being a network, consensus is achieved when the majority of the nodes agree on the validity of the transaction. So what the majority agrees on is the truth. If they include the transaction into the blockchain, then the transaction is confirmed.

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    In a central database, being a centralized network, the authority managing the database decides on what is true and what is false.

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#5697

  1. In blockchain, consensus determines the truth since all the participants in a network have a copy of the transaction for which they determine whether it’s legitimate or not through consensus. Hence, validators/network participants deter anybody from gaming the system.

  2. In a centralised system, trust is on individuals. And, more often than not, they could deceive, manipulate, or commit fraud. Conversely, in blockchain, all the members in a network have to agree on the transaction and its information.

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#5698
  1. Consensus refers to the agreement between network participants whether a transaction is valid or not (true or false). It removes trust from the system, because economic incentives drive network participants to be honest.
  2. Truth in a central database is determined by a central authority and therefore requires trust in that central authority.
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#5699

  1. Trust, in the perspective of blockchain, means verified, authenticated and goodwill. When we have consensus in blockchain it means all nodes (the verifiers/participants/voters of the network) agree on the allowing a transaction to occur. This eliminates bias and ambiguity.

  2. central database are prone to human errors, human emotions and bias, also, importantly, it can be arbitrary.

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#5700

  1. In a blockchain the notes all together decide over the truth, therefore it is a decentralized decision making based on the copy of the last block they received.
    If any of the nodes receives a block or a transaction or a code that it cannot verify the help of the other nodes (for example in case the node was offline for some time and missed blocks) it will ignore the block or transaction or code.
    No overseeing authority exist, that can manipulate the nodes in the system.

  2. In a central database the network will ask the central database to check for the truth, if the database was hacked or the overseeing authority would be corrupt the truth can be false. The decision making is centralized with the central database location and the overseeing authority.
    It is like dictatorship / central database vs. democracy / blockchain system

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#5701
  1. The nodes are incentivize to be honest which makes it extremely difficult to “cheat”. The network validation prevents fraud. More than one decision makers are necessary or required to proceed and confirm transactions.
  2. Central DB and legacy systems relies on authority as a requirement in which a DB owner can corrupt and/or modify data. As a result makes it difficult to audit independently.
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#5702

  1. The blockchain doesn’t rely on a singular entity, but a network of nodes. This of course means that some sort of consensus has to be reached between those nodes. This consensus is considered to be the truth.

  2. As mentioned above, a central database relies on a singular entity. This means that whatever that singular database states is considered the truth.

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#5703

1: Consensus means that all participants (the network) can verify that what information is presented is in fact the truth. Just as was described with the cow to the yogurt example, all companies that participated in the supply chain network can verify that they supplied the ingredients to a company in the supply chain process. Consensus means that all parties can verify the truth, and don’t have to trust only one person or group who claims they are telling the truth.

2: In a central database, all of the deciding power is in that location. It would be like saying that if one company controlled everything from the hay cows eat to the sweetener in the final product of yogurt, they could say anything they want because they control the flow of data. Whereas if you have various companies participating in that supply chain network, they can independently verify that the data is the actual data.

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#5704

1 - When data is entered into the blockchain the nodes which verify the new data must come to an agreement that the information is true and authentic. Once the data has been verified by the participants it means they have come to a consensus that the data should be taken as the truth.

2 - In a decentralised database, the owner who uploads the data and determines its autheticity must be accepted by those who ingest the data afterwards therefore, the only point of verification is that which is uploaded by the owner of the centralised database as opposed to a network of different incentivised operators who come to a collective agreement on the data which is accepted and flows through the chain

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#5705
  1. All the participants taking part in either proof of work of proof of stake need to agree that a transaction is valid in order for that to go through. False transactions will be discarded.
  2. The one having authority over the database can simply determine what is true and what is not.
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#5706

  1. Consensus is the agreement of all parties (or nodes) on a particular transaction. If all parties can verify that a transaction is true, then they will agree to allow that transaction to exist within the network. If all parties do not agree, then there is no consensus and the transaction will be rejected by the network. Therefore, through consensus, we can verify what transactions are true, and what transactions are not true. (Also incentivizes parties to remain honest.)

  2. In a central database, the truth is determined by a sole authority. Everyone else that utilizes that database must trust that what this authority determines to be true is actually true.

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#5707
  1. Consensus determines the truth because all parties in the network determines what is truth which prevents fraudulence
  2. This is different from how truth is determined in a centralized database because in a centralized database only one party decides what the truth is and everyone else has no say.
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