Gossip Protocol
A Gossip Protocol is a communication mechanism used in distributed systems that mimics the way gossip spreads in social settings. Instead of relying on a central coordinator, each node in the network periodically exchanges state information with a few randomly chosen peers. Over time, this "gossip" spreads throughout the network until all nodes have a consistent view of the system.
In essence, gossip protocols help distributed systems achieve eventual consistency—ensuring that all nodes eventually converge to the same state even if updates are propagated in a non-deterministic order.