# Decentralized systems are slow to come to a consensus The consensus opinion needs to propagate through the system and each node needs to take the time to verify that opinion instead of just taking it as given from the node before it. Assuming instantaneous transmission, that still means that the amount of time it will take is O(N) as opposed to O(1) as in a [[§Trusted Hierarchy]]. This may partially be one of the reasons why [[Tech people are bad at politics]] I suspect there’s lots of math behind this (https://www.mit.edu/~jnt/Papers/J133-11-siam-review.pdf) ? <!-- #stub --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Decentralized+systems+are+slow+to+come+to+a+consensus) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Decentralized+systems+are+slow+to+come+to+a+consensus)