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[CORDA-1515] Clarify distinction between non-validating and validating notaries (#3369)

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Konstantinos Chalkias 2018-06-14 14:34:56 +01:00 committed by Michele Sollecito
parent c15fde242f
commit 81730b0a14
1 changed files with 4 additions and 3 deletions
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7
docs/source/key-concepts-notaries.rst
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@ -4,7 +4,8 @@ Notaries
.. topic:: Summary
* *Notary clusters prevent "double-spends"*
* *Notary clusters may optionally also validate transactions*
* *Notary clusters are also time-stamping authorities. If a transaction includes a time-window, it can only be notarised during that window*
* *Notary clusters may optionally also validate transactions, in which case they are called "validating" notaries, as opposed to "non-validating"*
* *A network can have several notary clusters, each running a different consensus algorithm*
.. only:: htmlmode
@ -54,11 +55,11 @@ Validation
A notary cluster must also decide whether or not to provide **validity consensus** by validating each transaction
before committing it. In making this decision, it faces the following trade-off:
* If a transaction **is not** checked for validity, it creates the risk of "denial of state" attacks, where a node
* If a transaction **is not** checked for validity (non-validating notary), it creates the risk of "denial of state" attacks, where a node
knowingly builds an invalid transaction consuming some set of existing states and sends it to the
notary cluster, causing the states to be marked as consumed
* If the transaction **is** checked for validity, the notary will need to see the full contents of the transaction and
* If the transaction **is** checked for validity (validating notary), the notary will need to see the full contents of the transaction and
its dependencies. This leaks potentially private data to the notary cluster
There are several further points to keep in mind when evaluating this trade-off. In the case of the non-validating