Gossip Protocol
In plain terms
Spreading information by nodes randomly sharing with peers.
Going deeper
In a gossip protocol, each node periodically exchanges state with random others, so information spreads epidemically across the cluster. It disseminates state without central control.
Under the hood
Scalable and fault-tolerant; used for membership, failure detection, and state propagation (e.g., Cassandra).
Examples
Cassandra, cluster membership, failure detection, Consul, peer-to-peer.
Think of it like...
Like a rumor spreading through a crowd as people randomly tell a few others.