Bitcoin Forum

As is mentioned earlier, when Bitcoin is born, mankind entered a brand new civilization, which I named Bit Civilization. In my opinion, it's a higher civilization based on the idea of Bitcoin and will transform all aspects of human society, including but not limited to organization, family concept, tool, language, word, belief, law, system, city-state, country, assets, ethics, culture and art. The booming crypto world is the embryonic form of the future Bit Civilization.


As far as I'm concerned, substantially, human civilization is consensus, so is Bit Civilization, currency and value. Consensus constitutes value and value constitutes civilization.

---

So what exactly is consensus? Consensus mechanism is one of the core concepts of Bitcoin, only when we fully understand consensus, can we be more clear about the value that Bitcoin brings to us.


As I see it, the simplest explanation of consensus is shared knowledge, view, understanding and goal, which will temporarily eliminate differences and ease contradictions, rendering collaboration possible.


Another meaning of consensus is agreement, or contract. Reaching a consensus is garnering a contract. In constant struggle, compromise appears frequently, and the process of compromising is the course of forming an agreement. Consensus is to fix the agreement in the form of opinions, concepts or laws. Major difference indicates big consensus while minor difference signifies small one. In the history of human civilization, most of the consensus was formed in compromise.


We live in an objective world where the stimulation of education, learning, media and other external factors is ceaselessly affecting our cognition and then forming our subjective mind. Cognition is the fruit of accepting the consensus that exists. Concepts such as organization, family concept, tool, language, word, belief, law, system, city-state, country, assets, ethics, culture, art and so forth are not innate, but shaped owing to numerous collisions and concessions in violence and argument. In many cases, things themselves have no concepts and values at all but endowed by the collective consciousness of mankind.


In the past 5000-year history, human civilization came into being on the basis of consensus reached through repeated violence and compromise. But when Bitcoin was born, everything changed. Before, human nature determines whether a consensus can be achieved, normally by violence, treaties, agreements, laws and other forms. However, Bitcoin gives technology and algorithms the access to forming consensus . The previous consensus can be changed and discarded at will. Yet the consensus of Bitcoin is founded on cryptography and mathematics, and that abides by the laws of mathematics sorely.


That is the consensus of Bit Civilization, whose cornerstone is algorithms and technology, transcending human nature in that it is not governed by people and it manages people with the help of algorithms. That's why I gave it that name, it is an advanced human civilization. Bitcoin is leading us from a low-level civilization to a high-level one. It may take one or five or even ten decades, but I believe it will come and no one can stop it.


This is my understanding of some basic concepts of consensus. What's your point?

The development of human civilization is a process in which old consensus is replaced by new consensus.

My question is: Why is a new consensus needed? What problem does it solve?

The problem facing the world today is not the problem of the currency itself, but the problem of the distribution of wealth behind the currency.

Global collaboration requires near-synchronized changes in the civilized world to solve the problem. Currently, there is no global solution that can be implemented in a sustainable manner. Although the emergence of Bitcoin provides a way to solve this problem. But the consensus is far from reached.

In my opinion, the current currency system in our world is the most unreasonable 50 years in the history of human civilization for nearly 5,000 years. Various sovereign countries continue to issue legal tenders without any physical value support, and they are still in the process of continuous over-issuance. This will inevitably lead to continuous inflation, and the people's wealth will continue to be diluted. It was not until the birth of Bitcoin that gave the people a whole new choice. People are free to choose Bitcoin to store their wealth, fight inflation, and increase their wealth. Therefore, abandoning fiat currency and embracing Bitcoin will be the best choice for the people at the bottom. However, the current consensus is not strong enough. Let more people reach a consensus on this point is the mission of Bitcoin believers, and this is also my mission. I am currently writing these articles every day, hoping to better spread these consensus and spread these ideas. Although this writing process is very painful, I think it is very valuable.

It is unreasonable but it is effective and for how long it has been in our civilization, I think that we will have a hard time uprooting this system because it's coupled already with the global economy and global supply chain and what happens when we take away a keystone to those things, it will eventually collapse, it's a parasite that we can't remove.

Not exactly effective. Most of our world chases money, and neglects more important factors. I like the saying that we work to live, and not live to work. However, the reality is most people live to get money, and then they don't even enjoy it when they get it, because by the time they've amounted any sort of substantial earnings, they are on their death bed.

The system is designed to keep the poor, well poor, and contributing to the wealthy companies that pretty much rule the world. So, no the current money system makes no sense, yet people contribute to its survival every day.

Unless by effective you mean keeping those that control things rich, then yeah its pretty effective at that. However, what is clear is there are far more people unhappy with the current implementation of our concept of money, than there is supporters of it.

Exactly the current system is survival run in which only who have funds can survive and the most of worker class or employees are working hard to fill the pockets of some businessman who are giving them small share of their earnings only and becoming rich from it.The government prints new notes in any case of deficit and devaluing the fiat currency and cannot counter the inflation.The tax payers are mostly the normal people and rich ones are getting subsidy if they give it to any charity which is also being run by them.The current monetary system all over the globe is fucked up and the reserves are not actually backed up by anything.The people follows their normal routine of waking up and doing the same work to earn bread and butter for their family and in turn getting nothing much.In the current time savings have become an issue because you cannot save much as minimum wages have not grown substantially with inflation and still they think people can survive all that things? But with introduction of bitcoin the financial revolution is basing up the people's mind to get free from all those problems and setup a life for themselves also.

People sometimes mistakenly think of consensus as though it were something akin to democracy, or voting.  But there are some crucial distinctions between those concepts.  Voting is effectively an act of asking for permission.  Your government permit you a specific date and present you with some options to choose from.  Whatever the outcome of that vote, you are compelled to abide by it, even if you didn't like any of the options presented to you.  The only alternatives open to you if you disagree with the outcome are campaigning for reform, leaving the region, or resorting to civil unrest and overthrowing the government.  However, these all take considerable effort. 

With consensus, however, it's more of an opt-in.  People take part by choice.  The software you run enforces the protocol rules you are willing to adhere to.  You aren't asking permission from anyone, you are simply manifesting your will and enforcing rules.  The consensus mechanism will then match you with others who agree with those same rules and you will build a network together.  The larger the number of people in agreement, the stronger the network is and the more utility it generates.  There is nothing mandating you to stay if you ever decide you no longer agree with the rules everyone else is enforcing.  You can even take part in multiple networks, each with different rules.  Or even create one of your very own.  You are effectively free to do anything, providing you can find a sufficient number of participants to build a functioning network with. 

Consensus mechanisms of Blockchain are really hard to understand for ordinary people, as well a bit longer but nice post @RainbowKun.
You know not only Bitcoin but also Consensus mechanisms are used to computers. it is fault-tolerant, which means it can respond when changes occurred, and keep the changes as a record for the future. For Bitcoin, another name of the Consensus mechanism is PoW.

I hope your concept of consensus is the same between Bitcoin and the human world, but I think it is very difficult, it is difficult to compare them, consensus in Bitcoin depends on mathematics and technology and there can be no difference because there are clear and fixed mathematical laws that cannot be changed, but consensus in humans is different. Exactly because it depends on the diversity of concepts and minds in humans and it is difficult for human minds to meet on one concept for anything in this life.
For example, can there be human consensus on the fair distribution of wealth among the inhabitants of the Earth? Will the rich be satisfied with distributing their wealth equally to the poor? I doubt that this consensus will ever happen!!!

Hi, DooMAD, you gave a very high-quality response. I am really happy to see this response. The example you gave pointed out an important feature of the consensus mechanism, which is that it does not require permission. The real consensus is not formed by coercion such as violence, law, and the military, but it really depends on everyone's free will. No permission is the best withdrawal of human free will. Each of our human individuals has free will, and we are free to make our choices. We are free to choose to join a consensus network, and if we lose confidence in it, we are also free to leave. We are also free to join multiple consensus networks at the same time.



Yes, it is really difficult for ordinary people to understand Bitcoin's consensus mechanism. This is an evolutionary process from quantitative change to qualitative change. As more and more people reach a consensus on Bitcoin and the idea of Bitcoin spreads further, ordinary people will gradually be able to accept Bitcoin.


Yes, your summary is great. You clearly pointed out the difference between the existing consensus of mankind and the consensus of Bitcoin. The current consensus of mankind depends on the diversity of people's concepts and thoughts. Therefore, human consensus is not strong, probably because of human sensibility and breakdown. However, the consensus of Bitcoin is based on mathematical algorithms and is not based on human will. Now we are migrating to the machine trust of Bitcoin, so that it is possible to create a truly fair, open, equal, free, trusting, and beautiful society. This process must be very long, but I believe it will come.

The operation of human economy and society is based on various consensuses. Everything needs to reach a consensus stage from the continuous game process. Bitcoin is that all the correct nodes in the system agree to a certain decision and reach a consensus.

When the entire Bitcoin community formed a consensus, it was positively fed back to the bitcoin mechanism. With the globalization of the Internet and the currency barriers of various countries, the circulation of wealth will inevitably lag behind. The emergence of bitcoin and the continuous growth of self vitality. Bitcoin's scale and transaction volume will not die out due to the suppression of national regulatory policies, because consensus and systems will not disappear due to suppression. Once the consensus is formed, various supplements will be developed to gradually improve it.

Consensus was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto, because Bitcoin removed the centralized decision making powers of governments and Banks.

Bitcoin actually manged to solve the Byzantine Generals Problem (Where the human element of trust and distrust was removed and replaced by technology) ===> "Proof-of-Work mechanism" 

The inputs are still from humans, but the decision making and consensus are done through a complex system of algorithm and math problems. This technology should be given a "Gold" medal for achieving something that has never been done before... but humans (governments and Banks) are still the problem, because they do not want a technology to replace their power.  ::)

Yes, you sum it up very well, Bitcoin should be awarded a gold medal. No government likes Bitcoin, because Bitcoin is taking away power from them. The inspiration given to us by the Bitcoin network is that it is no longer controlled by a centralized organization, but the power is distributed to more people and controlled by the people collectively. This is what I have always emphasized that Bitcoin is leading the transformation of human society from a centralized civilization to a decentralized civilization. This has become an increasingly powerful consensus, and no one can stop this trend.

Consensus is the determinism and certainty of the blockchain, which is the most modern norm. It is also a strong relationship created by consensus.

From the birth of Bitcoin to the present, the impact it has brought to us is extremely significant, especially the contribution of the entire system to the world.
Consensus is of course not a new concept. Consensus already exists in human group life. This is very common in our daily lives and it is also a very precious thing. There is a sense of unity in the group, so that the consensus reached by members is Equally valuable.
Consensus was originally a concept of social operations, but now it is an important part of computer science for us.
In the distributed ledger, the consensus mechanism is that most members agree on the value of the proposed transaction and update the ledger.

Consensus might be defined as a rigorous form of scientific peer review, which is algorithmically structured and defined by mathematical equations. In the case of bitcoin, this form of peer review is intrinsically backed by large quantities of processing power and electricity to make it improbable for the mathematically based peer review process to be sabotaged or overturned.

Financial markets and economies have the gold standard where fiat is backed by gold in an attempt to produce stability and reliability. Consensus protocols have their own attempts to intrinsically back their math based peer review process with electricity, computational power. In the case of chia coin, it would seem their consensus process is backed by their algorithm killing HDDs at an abnormally fast pace.

The key aspect to consensus could be the format used to intrinsically back it with resources. And what happens when consensus is not intrinsically backed by sufficient resources to thwart 51% attacks.

Consensus is about transaction rules, and Bitcoin values. It is agreement of rules determined where blocks and transactions are valid or not. It is very hard and it is refers to any number of methodologies used to achieve agreement and trust.

Consensus is a phrase to produce or make a mutually agreed agreement between groups or individuals after debate and research carried out in the intelligence collective to get consensus decision making. Consensus is an unavoidable consequence of non-violence and inclusiveness. Consensus, to reach agreement, also means more than agreeing to accept to accept the will of the majority which may leave anyone who does not accommodate up to 49 percent of the people who are dissatisfied.

Consensus is the basic principle for making a transaction. For Bitcoin, it is the supervision of the nodes in the network, which are the verification hashes for a transaction.
The consensus from Bitcoin inspired many other forms of consensus on later altcoins.
In terms of consensual meaning, is to agree, agree for a transaction to happen. In society, consensus is more difficult to express and may not require consent, but only a judgment from a person or authority.
Consensus and decentralization in crypto seem better because it is decentralized. Consensus on Bitcoin is growing profoundly as the hash rate keeps increasing.

Consensus is that I think the blockchain produces the most powerful product for mankind. Virtual currency can make investors who never know each other reach a consensus. When the investors of the currency have a consensus, the currency seems to have life and faith, just like People's perception of Bitcoin, when Bitcoin reaches the price position of 10w, 20w, we are not surprised, because we already knew that Bitcoin will reach this height!

OP's post is exactly why it's so easy to paint the crypto community as delusional.  Crypto hasn't transformed society and it's not going to in any of the ways OP is fantasizing about because it's not any of the things it's being presented as in that post.  And if you need it to be any or all of those things to see the actual utility of crypto, then you're going to live in an eternally unrealized fantasy world.

Further, the "consensus" concept in bitcoin is what has driven so much division because it requires so much compromise to reach consensus that large groups of people are unhappy.  Every time you see one of these major forks break off from bitcoin it's because a large group of people reject the "consensus" rules and change them the way they think is better.  The consensus aspect is highly overrated and your post doesn't reflect the reality of how divisive such a system has actually been.

I like your idealism of seeing bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general as the glue that will put all this stuff together come the future but with a bit of realism, and without skepticism (yet), we could see that this is a bit too far-fetched really. Sure bitcoin and cryptocurrencies could transform the way people see currency and the concept of money but not so much as it would automatically change humanity into a much more understanding species. We're living at the verge of a war and a nuclear standoff. using a different way of paying stuff isn't going to magically solve this. Couldn't agree more. I've been like this in the past, until I saw the reality of what bitcoin is all about. People should stop putting stuff in pedestals no matter how important or groundbreaking they are. Without proper human application, it'll all just go to waste. In the case of consensus, it's a bit of a grey area too because even now we can't even reach consensus and we haven't had the whole world in this ride yet.

So are we really reaching a new consensus as you have said? It has been said so many times that Bitcoin is going to create a balanced distribution of wealth in the world, and if I am to see something about that, then it is far from that. There is no balance distribution of wealth, because the rich are even the ones that are getting more rich as they are taking advantage of every opportunity that comes out to increase their level of wealth.

The poor who don’t have money to invest in assets like this, cannot get anything from it. Unless they are going to work very hard for them to earn what they want. But there have been some average people who were able to invest little in Bitcoin and they became rich,  which is good.

Consensus means that both parties agree to exchange something of equal value and of course this only happens at that time there are only 2 people, and you can pay 50% of the coin and 50% cash or 100% of the coin according to the agreement between two people. I think it's an agreement between two people.