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Crypto Terms:  Letter G
Jul 07, 2023 |
updated: Apr 04, 2024

What is Gossip Protocol?

Gossip Protocol Meaning:
Gossip Protocol - peer-to-peer communication between any type of digital device.
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Let's find out Gossip Protocol meaning, definition in crypto, what is Gossip Protocol, and all other detailed facts.

Gossip Protocol is a computer communication protocol based on a peer-to-peer network. The term is a play on words derived from everyday gossip.

This term is often used in computer science. Here, the gossip protocol outlines the communication within a distributed network. The communication itself happens when the information is transmitted between other computer nodes

Gossip protocol entails the broadcasting of information between multiple computers until every computer has received it

There is a variety of different Gossip protocols. Every one of them has been developed based on the needs of the end-user, or even specific circumstances or environment. 

Hashgraph, a distributed ledger technology, is one of the few examples that facilitate the gossip protocol. It was launched by Leemon Baird. Hashgraph implements an asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (aBFT) consensus mechanism.

In this case, the network nodes collect and summarize transaction-related data and distribute it among random neighbor nodes. Hashgraph builds a data-filled tree of events, unlike a blockchain building a chain of blocks.

​​Márk Jelasity, a professor at the University of Szeged, states that gossip manifests itself in one of two ways: information aggregation a.k.a. distributed data mining, or information dissemination a.k.a. multicast.

Information aggregation gossip type summarizes and distributes information. Meaning it directly processes said information. Meanwhile, information dissemination gossip type operates like a traditional data distribution model.

They are the main components of distributed systems on a large scale.