Consensus Technology

Consensus is a shared view of reality that is agreed upon between different parts of a system. Organizations decide upon unitary rational action by the mechanism.

The consensus property is very easy to achieve in centralized systems, where a single governing body is trusted by all members to define this shared reality. For example, a business company is planning for year-end bonus. After discussion between manager and department supervisors, the bonus will be allocated according to the performance appraisal of last year. Grade A will get 100% of their monthly pay. Grade B will get 75% and Grade C will get 50%. This is a typical centralized decision-making process. Employees have to accept the allocation even though no one ask for their advice.

A decentralized organizational structure is one in which the authority is shifted to individuals at each level. The item that employees can get at least 30% of monthly pay as bonus may be added as a result of negotiations. While not considered technology in the traditional since, consensus "technology" is the basis of democratic governance.

Broadly speaking, blockchain can be described as a structure of data that is necessary for producing the consensus technology.