# Consensus mechanism

> How a blockchain's nodes agree on which transactions happened and in what order — proof of work, proof of stake, and their variants.

A blockchain is a database no one owns, so someone has to decide what the next page says. Consensus is that decision procedure: proof of work makes miners burn compute for the right to write it, proof of stake makes validators post collateral they lose if they cheat. Different economics, same goal — making lying more expensive than honesty.

The properties cascade from the choice: PoW buys battle-tested security with energy; PoS buys efficiency and fast finality with different trust assumptions. For a builder the takeaway is simpler — your app's security inherits the chain's, so the consensus under it is part of the architecture you chose.

## Related terms

- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/on-chain.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/solana.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/smart-contract.md

---

Source: https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/consensus-mechanism
DField Solutions — Dunakeszi, Hungary — dezso@dfieldsolutions.com
Booking: see https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/contact