A distributed consensus mechanism really isn't new, either. In fact, some mechanisms are as old as merkle trees. And even within the realm of consensus mechanis

A distributed consensus mechanism really isn't new, either. In fact, some mechanisms are as old as merkle trees. And even within the realm of consensus mechanisms, using BFT (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault) to achieve consensus is basically an 80's technology with a new spin on it. BFT isn't magical and brings its own set of problems - the most common is the relative simplicity of "majority" attacks.