Liveness
Also known as: Blockchain Availability, Consensus Progress, Block Continuity
A core property of blockchain consensus ensuring the network continues to make progress by producing and confirming new blocks.
Liveness is a fundamental property of blockchain systems that ensures the protocol continues to operate, produce blocks, and confirm transactions over time. It guarantees that every valid transaction will eventually be included in the ledger, assuming network assumptions hold (like honest majority or node connectivity). Liveness is often contrasted with safety, which ensures consistency of the blockchain state. Network delays, validator outages, or consensus bugs can compromise liveness. Protocols like Ethereum and Tendermint aim to balance liveness with security and decentralization through design trade-offs.