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There Is More Consensus in Egalitarian Parliaments

EPaxos. Iulian Moraru, David G. Andersen and Michael Kaminsky.

Any replica can propose. Commands that do not conflict commit in one round. Commands that conflict take a second round that records the dependency.

A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.

A blockchain that orders every transaction globally has refused the only win this paper offers.
Evidence
Primary paper
Re-measured
No
Assumptions
3
Records linked
2

Code

Source, repository, and what is actually hosted

  • CMU PDLhttps://www.pdl.cmu.edu/PDL-FTP/associated/CMU-PDL-13-109.pdf
  • The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
  • Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
  • Add to a reading list

01 Claim ledger

What the paper is allowed to say

Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.

  1. Claim 01 · Paper model

    The defect

    Multi-Paxos sends every command through one leader. Wide-area clients pay that leader's round trip.

  2. Claim 02 · Paper model

    The rule

    Any replica can propose. Commands that do not conflict commit in one round. Commands that conflict take a second round that records the dependency.

  3. Claim 03 · Paper model

    How it is put together

    A command carries the dependencies the proposer knew. A fast quorum is larger than a classic majority. Conflict is defined by the application, not by the log index.

  4. Claim 04 · Paper model

    Where the claim stops

    EPaxos is crash fault tolerant, not Byzantine.

02 Three cuts

Observation, model, falsifier

A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.

  1. 01 The defect

    Observation

    What the study says

    Multi-Paxos sends every command through one leader. Wide-area clients pay that leader's round trip.

    Model

    What has to hold

    The fast path dies if the workload conflicts on every key.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is a conflict for this state machine?

  2. 02 The rule

    Observation

    What the study says

    Any replica can propose. Commands that do not conflict commit in one round. Commands that conflict take a second round that records the dependency.

    Model

    What has to hold

    The fast path dies if the workload conflicts on every key.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is a conflict for this state machine?

  3. 03 How it is put together

    Observation

    What the study says

    A command carries the dependencies the proposer knew. A fast quorum is larger than a classic majority. Conflict is defined by the application, not by the log index.

    Model

    What has to hold

    It assumes replicas can evaluate interference.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is a conflict for this state machine?

  4. 04 Where the claim stops

    Observation

    What the study says

    EPaxos is crash fault tolerant, not Byzantine.

    Model

    What has to hold

    EPaxos is crash fault tolerant, not Byzantine.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What is a conflict for this state machine?

03 Sequence

One action, as an operating tape

  1. 01A client sends to the nearest replica.
  2. 02That replica asks a fast quorum to accept the command and its dependencies.
  3. 03If the quorum disagrees about dependencies, a second round settles the order.
  4. 04What is a conflict for this state machine?

04 Load-bearing

The argument, and where a pitch drops it

  1. Why it is still on the desk

    The cut

    A blockchain that orders every transaction globally has refused the only win this paper offers.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    The fast path dies if the workload conflicts on every key.

  2. After the text

    The cut

    EPaxos influenced later leaderless logs. Public chains mostly kept a total order because smart-contract state conflicts are hard to see in advance.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    EPaxos is crash fault tolerant, not Byzantine.

05 Register

What has to be true

  • Stake and threshold · Not re-measured

    EPaxos is crash fault tolerant, not Byzantine.

  • Cryptography · Not re-measured

    The fast path dies if the workload conflicts on every key.

  • Model · Not re-measured

    It assumes replicas can evaluate interference.

06 Divergence

What happened after the paper

EPaxos influenced later leaderless logs. Public chains mostly kept a total order because smart-contract state conflicts are hard to see in advance.

A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.

07 Pre-mortem

What to check before you use the idea

  4. 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.

08 Anatomy

The paper, in the order a builder needs

The problem it names

Multi-Paxos sends every command through one leader. Wide-area clients pay that leader's round trip.

What the design proposes

  • A command carries the dependencies the proposer knew.
  • A fast quorum is larger than a classic majority.
  • Conflict is defined by the application, not by the log index.

How the mechanism is specified

  • A client sends to the nearest replica.
  • That replica asks a fast quorum to accept the command and its dependencies.
  • If the quorum disagrees about dependencies, a second round settles the order.

What this page does not treat as proven

  • EPaxos is crash fault tolerant, not Byzantine.
  • The fast path dies if the workload conflicts on every key.
  • It assumes replicas can evaluate interference.

Why the desk still reads it

A blockchain that orders every transaction globally has refused the only win this paper offers.

09 Lexicon

Terms, opened into the record

Dependency
Another command that must be ordered relative to this one.
Fast quorum
A larger quorum that lets a command commit in one round.

10 Repository

Every linked record on this page

Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.

Concepts

This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.

Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.