# Albatross > The area of distributed ledgers is a vast and quickly developing landscape. At the heart of most distributed ledgers is their consensus protocol. The consensus protocol describes the way participants in a distributed network interact with each other to obtain and agree on a shared state. While classical consensus Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) algorithms are designed to work in closed, size-limited networks only, modern distributed ledgers -- and blockchains in particular -- often focus on open, permissionless networks. In this paper, we present a novel blockchain consensus algorithm, called \textit{Albatross}, inspired by speculative BFT algorithms. Transactions in Albatross benefit from a strong confirmation, and instant confirmations can be achieved as well. We describe the technical specification of Albatross in detail and analyse its security and performance. We conclude that the protocol is secure under regular PBFT security assumptions and has a performance close to the theoretical maximum for single-chain Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithms. from ### Whitepaper --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://tokens-economy.gitbook.io/consensus/chain-based-pbft-and-bft-based-proof-of-stake/albatross.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.