Two Phase Commitment

Definition ∞ Two-phase commitment is a distributed algorithm that ensures all participating nodes in a distributed transaction either commit to the transaction or abort it, guaranteeing atomicity. It operates in two stages, a voting phase where nodes prepare to commit, and a decision phase where the coordinator instructs all nodes to either commit or roll back. While not directly a blockchain consensus mechanism, its principles of atomic execution are relevant for cross-chain transactions or multi-party smart contract interactions. It helps maintain data consistency.
Context ∞ The principles of two-phase commitment are relevant in discussions about achieving atomic swaps and cross-chain transaction integrity in the digital asset space. A key debate involves adapting such mechanisms to decentralized, trustless environments where a central coordinator is absent or replaced by a decentralized protocol. Future developments explore lightweight, fault-tolerant versions of atomic commitment for interoperable blockchain ecosystems.