To understand how Avalanche works, and how it helps the functioning of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain, it is worth comparing its properties for compliance with the principles of Satoshi Nakamoto through the prism of PoW.
Avalanche works as follows: nodes (nodes) of the network can communicate with each other in real time, achieving a reliable consensus. The details of the protocol are described in the working documentation, and the effectiveness is confirmed by several examples.
Let’s imagine that we are talking about communications between two nodes A and B. According to the working method, the protocol will first build a system of node priority. To do this, a “survey” of random nodes will be conducted, as a result of which this problem will be solved. Such a survey can be conducted several times to obtain more reliable data. This is necessary in order to identify the main nodes as correctly as possible. How often, how many such polls there will be, how the sample will be determined — all this is the” stuffing “ of the Avalanche protocol, described in its working documentation.
At first glance, this protocol looks very simple, but it is worth paying attention to its interesting property called “metastability”. It implies that this method of achieving consensus cannot function stably if the main nodes are not defined. If this happens, Avalanche starts looking for a common solution for all currently active nodes.
In addition, when a solution is found, the protocol is able to provide security guarantees in any scenario of an attack on the blockchain. This is achieved by the fact that Avalanche builds a consensus-building system according to its own methodology, but each time analyzing the potential attacks of hackers in order to “cut off” their ability to get to the majority of nodes and take over the work of the blockchain.