LibraryConsensus1998Design paperCorpus record
The Part-Time Parliament
Paxos. Leslie Lamport.
A value is chosen only when a majority has accepted it in some ballot, and every higher ballot must honour a value that majority might already have chosen.
A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.
When a system says it is Paxos, ask which ballot can override which value, and whether a learner waits for a majority.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 2
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- Lamporthttps://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.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.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
A legislature that is often absent still has to pass one sequence of decrees.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The rule
A value is chosen only when a majority has accepted it in some ballot, and every higher ballot must honour a value that majority might already have chosen.
Claim 03 · Paper model
How it is put together
Ballots are totally ordered. A majority quorum prepares, then accepts. Learners act only after they see a majority.
Claim 04 · Paper model
Where the claim stops
Paxos does not pick an open membership.
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.
01 The defect
Observation
What the study says
A legislature that is often absent still has to pass one sequence of decrees.
Model
What has to hold
Paxos does not pick an open membership.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Is the quorum a majority of a known set?
02 The rule
Observation
What the study says
A value is chosen only when a majority has accepted it in some ballot, and every higher ballot must honour a value that majority might already have chosen.
Model
What has to hold
It is not Raft's replicated log, though Raft is a later explanation of a similar idea.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Can a higher ballot abandon a value a majority already accepted?
03 How it is put together
Observation
What the study says
Ballots are totally ordered. A majority quorum prepares, then accepts. Learners act only after they see a majority.
Model
What has to hold
It does not set fees, blocks, or a coin.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Is the quorum a majority of a known set?
04 Where the claim stops
Observation
What the study says
Paxos does not pick an open membership.
Model
What has to hold
Paxos does not pick an open membership.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Is the quorum a majority of a known set?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01Prepare asks a quorum to stop accepting lower ballots.
- 02Accept proposes a value consistent with the promises just collected.
- 03Two majorities intersect, so two chosen decrees cannot disagree.
- 04Is the quorum a majority of a known set?
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
Why it is still on the desk
The cut
When a system says it is Paxos, ask which ballot can override which value, and whether a learner waits for a majority.
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
Paxos does not pick an open membership.
After the text
The cut
Multi-Paxos, Chubby and Raft are engineering accounts of this shape. A stake-elected validator set is a different membership problem sitting in front of it.
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
Paxos does not pick an open membership.
05 Register
What has to be true
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
Multi-Paxos, Chubby and Raft are engineering accounts of this shape. A stake-elected validator set is a different membership problem sitting in front of it.
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
- 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
A legislature that is often absent still has to pass one sequence of decrees.
What the design proposes
- Ballots are totally ordered.
- A majority quorum prepares, then accepts.
- Learners act only after they see a majority.
How the mechanism is specified
- Prepare asks a quorum to stop accepting lower ballots.
- Accept proposes a value consistent with the promises just collected.
- Two majorities intersect, so two chosen decrees cannot disagree.
What this page does not treat as proven
Why the desk still reads it
When a system says it is Paxos, ask which ballot can override which value, and whether a learner waits for a majority.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Ballot
- A numbered attempt to choose one value.
- Majority
- Any two majorities share at least one replica.
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
Papers
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.