Gossip Protocol
A method of spreading information across a network where each node shares what it knows with a few other nodes, who each pass it on further, until the whole network is informed.
A gossip protocol spreads information across a decentralized network by having each node share what it knows with a handful of other randomly or semi-randomly selected peers, who then pass that same information on to their own peers, propagating it across the entire network without any central broadcaster.
This is how most blockchain networks propagate new transactions and blocks to every participating node (see Kaavon's "Mempool" and "Node" glossary definitions) — a node that creates or receives a new transaction gossips it to its peers, who gossip it onward, until it's reached nodes across the whole network.
Examples
- A new transaction broadcast to the network spreads node-to-node via a gossip protocol, reaching the entire network within seconds without any central relay.
- Gossip protocols are resilient to individual node failures, since information continues spreading through whichever peer connections remain available.