What is a consensus algorithm in blockchain?

What are concensus algorithms?

Consensus algorithms are procedures through which all nodes in a network reach a common agreement about the current state of the distributed ledger.

Blockchain is a decentralized network maintained by a network of nodes (miners or validators). Every node has its own copy of the blockchain and to maintain the same state of the blockchain across the network we need a consensus mechanism. The general working of a consensus algorithm is shown below.

Purpose of consensus algorithms

• Security: Every node verifies all the transactions in a block before adding them to their journal. It prevents malicious nodes from adding malicious transactions to the network.
• Accountability: The stake of a node is slashed if they attempt to add a malicious transaction to the network if the blockchain is using a proof of stake algorithm. On the other hand, if blockchain uses a proof of work algorithm, it will lose a lot of energy as other nodes will eventually reject its block. The transaction will never become part of the blockchain.

Types of consensus algorithms

• Proof of work: Every miner has to solve a complex mathematical puzzle that requires a lot of computational power to be able to mine the next block. Upon successful mining of the block, the miner gets a reward in the blockchain's local currency, for example, Ether in the case of the Ethereum blockchain.
• Proof of stake: Validators lock some of their coins in the network as stake, and if a validator's block is added to the blockchain, they will get a reward, and their stake will increase.
• Proof of elapsed time: Every node has to wait for a random amount of time and include their proof wait in their block to be able to mine a block.
• Proof of burn: Validators burn coins to be able to mine the next block. The more coins they burn, the greater the chances of being selected to mine the next block.