What are the benefits of causal consistency in distributed systems?

What are the benefits of causal consistency in distributed systems?

Causal consistency ensures that operations are seen by all nodes in a way that respects the cause-and-effect relationships. This leads to more intuitive behavior for users.

Can you give me an example of where this is useful?

Sure! In collaborative applications like Google Docs, causal consistency allows users to see changes made by others in a way that makes sense, avoiding confusion.

How does it compare to eventual consistency?

Causal consistency is stronger than eventual consistency because it guarantees that if one operation causally affects another, the first will be seen before the second.

What are the challenges in implementing causal consistency?

Implementing causal consistency can be complex, as it requires tracking dependencies between operations, which can introduce overhead and latency.