Reaching decentralized consensus (pt2)

This video by CuriousInvestor also covers the proof-of-work consensus mechanism in more detail. If you feel you have gotten a good understanding from the previous video, you can decide to skip this. Otherwise, perhaps a different angle on the same topic might help make it click a bit more.

Creator	Time	URL
CuriousInvestor	4min	Full source

Takeaway A rule is needed to ensure a distributed network with no authority can agree on what to do. The proof-of-work consensus mechanisms uses cryptography and code to help nodes agree what new transactions to add and allows us to verify the entire history of transactions that have gone before. This enables full agreement and consensus without any central authority, which is groundbreaking to have been implemented at scale.