> One of the most important results in the theory of distributed systems is an impossibility result, showing one of the limits of the ability to build systems that work in a world where things can fail.
Layman question. I wonder how important this result really is. This is an impossibility result in a certain model, where processes are deterministic. It's certainly a nice theoretical result but in practice, there are probabilistic algorithm that solve this problem.
I don't know what are the probabilistic bounds of probabilistic consensus algorithms, but if it's arbitrary low, the impossibility result for deterministic processes is irrelevant isn't it?
After all, if we can live with a super low probability of a meteorite destroying the planet, so can we with a good probabilistic consensus algorithm.
Layman question. I wonder how important this result really is. This is an impossibility result in a certain model, where processes are deterministic. It's certainly a nice theoretical result but in practice, there are probabilistic algorithm that solve this problem.
I don't know what are the probabilistic bounds of probabilistic consensus algorithms, but if it's arbitrary low, the impossibility result for deterministic processes is irrelevant isn't it?
After all, if we can live with a super low probability of a meteorite destroying the planet, so can we with a good probabilistic consensus algorithm.