Erasure Codes

Definition ∞ These are mathematical techniques that encode data in a way that allows for its reconstruction even if some parts of the data are lost or unavailable. They achieve redundancy by adding extra parity information, enabling recovery from a specified number of erasures. This is crucial for data reliability and fault tolerance.
Context ∞ Erasure Codes are a fundamental component in many decentralized storage and data distribution systems, frequently appearing in news related to data availability and resilience. Discussions often focus on the trade-offs between storage overhead, computational cost, and the degree of fault tolerance achieved. Analysts are observing their integration into protocols designed to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of blockchain data, especially in distributed file systems.