xrpl-dev-portal/content/concepts/consensus-network/consensus-network.md

Consensus Network

The primary role of consensus is for participants in the process to agree on which XRP Ledger transactions are to be processed as a group to resolve the double spend problem. This section covers concepts that help you learn the "what" and "why" behind fundamental aspects of consensus in the XRP Ledger.

• Consensus Principles and Rules

  Understand the principles and rules involved in reaching consensus in the XRP Ledger, including some background on the double-spend problem and details about how consensus works.
  

• Validators and the Trust Topology

• Amendments

  An amendment is a fully-functional feature or change, waiting to be enabled by the peer-to-peer network as a part of the consensus process. Understand the purpose of amendments and the amendment voting process.
  

• Fee Voting

  Fees include basic transaction costs as well as reserve requirements. Validators can vote for changes to fees. Understand the purpose and process of fee voting.
  

• Pseudo-Transactions

  Pseudo-transactions are never submitted by users, nor are they propagated through the network. Instead, a server may choose to inject them directly into a proposed ledger. If enough servers inject an equivalent pseudo-transaction for it to pass consensus, then it is included in the ledger. Understand the purpose and processing of pseudo-transactions.
  

• Consensus White Papers

  Access these Ripple white papers to get a close-up look at the XRP Ledger consensus algorithm.