Today, I wanted to mess around with something called “CFB consensus.” Honestly, I’d heard the term tossed around and figured it was time to get my hands dirty and see what it’s all about. No fancy book learnin’, just straight-up tinkering.
First, I started by just trying to understand the basic idea. I poked around the internet but all I found are some bullshits. Then I got some sample code and some examples, which was more helpful. The main thing I grasped was that this CFB thing is all about getting a bunch of computers to agree on something, even if some of them are acting up or just plain lying.
So, I fired up my coding environment and decided to build a simple version myself. I opted for Python because, let’s be real, it’s the easiest to just throw something together. I started with a few nodes, which are basically just simulated computers in this case. I had them sending messages to each other, proposing values, and voting on them. It was pretty chaotic at first.
- I set up the nodes to communicate.
- Then, I made them propose values randomly.
- Next, they started voting based on some simple rules.
The first few runs were a mess. Nodes would disagree, votes were all over the place, and nothing got decided. It felt like herding cats. But I kept tweaking the code, changing how they voted, how they shared information, and how they dealt with faulty nodes. I added some logging to see what each node was thinking and doing, which was super helpful for debugging.
Small Wins
After a lot of trial and error, I finally started to see some progress. The nodes were actually reaching a consensus! It was slow and clunky, but they were agreeing on a value, even when I introduced some “bad” nodes that tried to mess things up. It was a real “aha!” moment, seeing it all come together.
I played around with different parameters, like the number of nodes and the percentage of faulty ones. It was interesting to see how the system held up under different conditions. It’s definitely not perfect, and there’s a ton of room for improvement, but it was a solid first attempt, now it works.
So, that’s my little adventure with CFB consensus. I went in not knowing much, built something from scratch, and came out with a basic understanding and a working prototype. It was a fun, hands-on way to learn something new. Next time, I might try to make it more efficient or robust, but for now, I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished. If any of you have messed around with this stuff, I’d love to hear about your experiences. Let’s share and learn together!
