What is the Obelisk Consensus Algorithm?

The obelisk is a hopeful consensus algorithm that objectifies at eradicating the Proof of Work (POW) and Proof of Stake (POS) algorithms’ shortcomings to make it possible to preserve the blockchain state around the distributed network with negligible computing power and no requirement for stake-related needs.

It decreases the need for mining, substantially enhancing transaction speed and delivering improved security. Understanding Obelisk Consensus Algorithm

Public blockchains, basically, operate on a global scale as decentralized, self-regulated platforms without any authority. A secure, reliable and real-time network mechanism is needed to make sure the transactions occurring on the status of the ledger and the network are authentic.

The consensus algorithm, which is a network protocol that decides the contribution by several blockchain participants, performs this all-inclusive, essential activity. While Litecoin and Bitcoin use Proof of Work (POW), NEO and Dash use Proof of Stake (POS).

These POW and POS are the two most used consensus algorithms that have their own advantages and disadvantages. POW is energy-intensive, and POS is more into promoting cryptocurrency hoarding rather than spending.

How Obelisk Work?

According to the web of trust concept, obelisk puts in efforts to avoid the issues of POW and POS by distributing the impact over a network. This notion disperses the impact over several network nodes and makes consensus decisions on the Basis of the influence score of every node.

Every node is subscribed to a specific number of additional network nodes, and the density of subscriber network comprehends the impact on the entire network. As far as activities performed and roles are concerned, there are two different types of nodes on Obelisk – consensus nodes and block-generating nodes.

These nodes can take any role interchangeable. Primarily, block-generating nodes gather new transactions, validate them, package the authentic transactions into a new block and broadcast it to the network.

On the other hand, consensus nodes gather the generated blocks and place them in a different container, other than the blockchain. Then, it identifies such block that was developed by the largest number of block-generators.

This block is known as the local winner and gets to be added to the blockchain. Each of the consensus nodes maintains the required statistics on local winners as other nodes report. When the majority of the consensus nodes report the local winners, it gets the green signal to be the global winner and to be the same part of the blockchain.