# Blockchain Consensus Mechanisms

A consensus mechanism is a fault-tolerant mechanism that is used in computer and [*blockchain*](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp) systems to achieve the necessary agreement on a single data value or a single state of the network among distributed processes or multi- agent systems. It is useful in record- keeping, among other things.

On the [*Bitcoin*](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin.asp) blockchain, for instance, the consensus mechanism is known as Proof-of-Work (PoW), which requires the exertion of computational power in order to solve a difficult but arbitrary puzzle in order to keep all nodes in the network honest.

BlockConvey Permisioned Private blockchain uses Proof of Authority as its consensus mechanism.