The Fork Menace - DCR Comic 6

Which chain will you support when conflict arises?

Decred's hybrid consensus helps the network resist splits in case of contentious forks. A mix of economic incentives and clever cryptography makes sure miners follow the stakeholders.

01 - Contentious forks can be a network's worst enemy. They destroy value and split the community. Is there a way to prevent them?

02 - Working with Open Source Software means anyone can copy the project's software and change the rules.

If there are enough miners supporting it, the new chain survives and takes some users with it.

03A - But Decred is different. Economic incentives and clever cryptography make sure miners follow the stakeholders.

03B - Meanwhile, Decred's on-chain consensus voting and Politeia allow the community to keep collaborating and avoid splits.

04 - Each new block requires validation from PoS tickets. Otherwise it's discarded.

05A - If there's a Decred fork, miners will follow the most rewarding chain.

05B - On the one with less stakeholder support, the minority chain, most blocks will select missing tickets whose owners are active on the majority chain.

06 - If miners can't find blocks that point to active tickets, block production halts.

07 - Miners who remain in the majority chain will enjoy reduced competition and earn even more.

08 - This configuration aligns miners and stakeholders in a way they both can collaborate to build a stronger, faster, better network.