Sun-Li Beatteay on Guaranteeing Consensus in Distributed Systems with CRDTs [PWL NYC]

Consensus in distributed systems has been a debated topic every since programmers discovered they could run the same program on multiple machines. Researchers have been studying consensus for decades, resulting in numerous algorithms and white papers. Unfortunately, many of these algorithms are flawed and unreliable.

However, in 2011, a team of researchers published a paper on a novel approach to distributed consensus using Conflict-free Replicated Data Types ( This paper created quite a buzz as it showed that CRDTs were mathematically proven to guarantee consensus through "Strong Eventual Consistency." They also claimed to have solved the CAP conundrum.

This presentation dives into this seminal paper in order to answer the hard questions. What are CRDTs? How do they work? And most importantly, does it actually solve CAP? By the end of this talk, everyone in the audience will have a foundational understanding of CRDTs and how they can be applied to their own work.

Best of all, I will be explaining all of this is as simple language as possible. No advanced math degree required! Sound too good to be true? You'll just have to come see for yourself!

Bio:

Sunny Beatteay ( (@SunnyPaxos is a software engineer and writer. He works on the Storage team at DigitalOcean where he helps to build Cloud products for fellow engineers. He also writes stories and tutorials related to technology on Medium (

Sunny lives in Brooklyn, NY. When he's not writing software, you can often find him drinking fine whiskeys, entertaining his cat, and playing Zelda. Usually at the same time.

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