Homework on Consensus - Questions

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#1085

  1. Consensus means that both parties are in a agreement with what has happened. The transaction is then added to the blockchain once consensus was reached and anyone can go back to that transaction to see how consensus was reached. If consensus was not reached the transaction will be thrown out by the system. The truth is therefore solidified in the blockchain forever and we can verify.

  2. In a central database the truth is decided by a central authority and that central authority can manipulate the truth. Here we rely on trust.

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#1086

Homework on Consensus - Questions

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    The truth, what is the truth? Is it my truth or your truth? Do I own this thing, do you own this thing, or do we own this thing, or does no one own this thing? Consensus is the concept that truth can be made absolute assuming we agree on a predetermined set of rules. The rules are ownership, and consensus or agreement through tracking/tracing the thing throughout a blockchain. Consensus is a digital attempt at absolute truth.

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    A central database is like the individual, it assigns truth often based on personal interests. Though this discounts humanity being kind, loving and creative, it does suggest a way to support our inborn tendencies. The central database, if we go on the idea that all power corrupts, is more easily altered based on the situation/need of the owner of said database. Thus a small group of data entry people controls the information that is put in and or removed from the database, a truth ministry!

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#1087
  1. Consensus determines the truth through incentives.
  2. In a central database there is an authority that might not be truthful in altering the database.
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#1088
  1. Consensus eliminates the need for trust. It acts as a trust less ledger.
  2. In Consensus all nodes store a copy of the database and agree that the
    transaction fits otherwise it is rejected. In a centralized database and
    administrator or someone with privileged access decides not the nodes.
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#1089

  1. Consensus determines that every nod or pc in the network will have to agree with the change, transaction, information of the public ledger. The truth will be determined my the information in the blockchain, knowing that every participant of the blockchain had to agree on the transaction.

  2. In a central database, the information of that database can be changed for good or bad only be one participant. This central participant is the owner of the information, in a public ledger, everyone os the owner of the truth.

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#1090

  1. The nodes need to agree on, which transactions are valide (true).

  2. In central system the data can be changed by everyone, who has the according rights. Hence a single participant can change the data.

2 Likes
#1091

Homework on Consensus - Questions

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

All the nodes in the blockchain network maintain a full copy of the distributed ledger. They collectively determine whether a transaction should be confirmed (i.e., written to the ledger), for example by checking whether someone making a purchase has sufficient funds. This consensus between multiple nodes helps maintain a self-verifying public ledger by using proof-of-work or proof-of-stake mechanisms to agree on and share the “truth” about a transaction (or multiple transactions in a supply network). Since this truth by consensus is financially incentivised through mining, all nodes in the network ensure that the other nodes “play by the rules” to maintain a trustless database.

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

Since a central database is owned, maintained and controlled by a central authority, it requires trust. It doesn’t have the accountability and other safeguards (such as redundancy) provided by multiple independent third parties who not only verify each transaction but keep a permanent record of it. A central database is vulnerable to failure or manipulation / mismanagement, especially if the owner or authority has a financial incentive for not enforcing self-imposed rules or not “telling the truth”.

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#1092

1- Because it is the mechanism by wich a transaction or another type of information is validated inside a blockchain becoming part of it. Different computers on a blockchain need to agree in order to decide if a given piece of information is true or false, as they agree they reach Consensus determining truth eliminating trust.

2- In centralized databases truth is often determined by the person/entity/authority that controls that database.

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#1093

At this point, it is about a global ‘agreement’ in the whole system. The blockchain/bitcoin makes sure that the transactions are made according to the consensus already established.

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#1094
  1. Every node in the network verifies new data to make sure it is correct and that it makes sense. This makes it hard to lie or cheat and incentivizes you to tell the truth.
  2. In a central database, an individual can alter or corrupt the truth because there is no one else to verify what they claim is true.
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#1095

In a blockchain, individuals are incentivized to come to a consensus to determine the truth.
On a central database who ever controls the database controls the truth.

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#1096

In a blockchain, consensus is determined by all members of the network - they all verify together all transactions.
In a central datbase, we are at the mercy of the central authority to verify transactions so we must " trust" their accuracy/honesty.

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#1097

  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth?
    trustless system, verify a trans and agree with
    incentive for verify processing
    any cheating will be punished

  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database?
    truth DB owner or privilege
    need to audit
    central authority full control it

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#1098

Q1: Transactions must be verified throughout the entire network and to ensure that these transactions are real it rewards people for honesty.

Q2: Whoever controls the central database controls the truth.

#1099

  1. If all the parties in the network verify and agree upon the content, then this is the truth. After this process there is consensus

  2. Every network player only communicates with the central database, not with each other. Central database does not always have incentive to display the truth

#1100

The various minors in the decentralized network each exam the proposed transaction. The all agree that the transaction makes sense and confirm. Or they reject the proposed transaction and it is not recorded on the blockchain ledger. In return for this work the receive incentives. This eliminates the trust factor once required in traditional trading. Everyone minor on the network wants to make money and accomplishes this by doing the work to achieve agreement on a proposed transaction or stopping a bad one.

Unlike a traditional none blockchain network the blockchain is inherently un-corruptible. No one person can attempt to delete a ledger entry once confirmed or add to it or redirect it. This eliminates hacking and mistakes in ledger entry’s and the possibility of a central computer server compromising a whole system network.

#1101

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

In the blockchain the peer-to-peer network nodes have an economic incentive to reach a consensus on a transaction by their mining actions. Only if the nodes agree upon a new transaction, that the transaction is added to the ledger. Nodes are economically encouraged to perform in a trustworthy manner. Abnormalities in a transaction would lead to the transaction being rejected by the peer nodes.

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

With a central database, the database is the central authority and is the sole entity the decides what is truth. Abnormalities in the data, by error or by a nefarious actor within the database could not be rejected by the connected clients. This is left only to the central database to reject, modify or accept.

#1102
  1. it means that the network is agreeing on a transaction being valid or invalid
  2. in a centralized database it is a lot more likely that a transaction that is invalid being approved by the centralized system or a valid transaction being denied even though it should actually be confirmed
#1103

1 - Consensus in the blockchain determines the truth through incentives as the people decentralised trustless decisions are decided through verification. These incentives are generally in the form of money and thus if someone is not honest they lose money, hence when the supply network comes together in consensus it becomes very difficult to cheat.

2 - Truth is determined in a central database mainly through trust. This allows there to be problems of cheating the database and system. Blockchain removes the trust through maths and protocol and thus focuses on verification instead of a trust model.

#1104
  1. What does it mean when we say that in blockchain, consensus determine the truth? - all computers on the network must agree on what is true and what is not true
  2. How is this different from how truth is determined in a central database? Because each computer has a copy of the ledger and each node must agree for the transaction to be approved. A database is one source that can be manipulated.