<p>No.</p>
<p>Hydra is a layer-two solution which works &quot;on top of&quot; Cardano. A hydra-node which implements the Hydra Head protocol will run alongside the cardano-node and provide an isomorphic state channel which has the same transaction format and ledger rules as Cardano, but with a much simpler consensus. The fact that not the whole network needs to agree to reach consensus in a single Hydra Head, but only the participants of a particular Head, makes this faster &amp; cheaper than to process transactions on the mainchain.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-26T09:30:06.140Z
Small addition: while it may not require changes in the current consensus protocol, Hydra makes heavy use of Plutus smart validators and it may require changes in the Plutus core built-ins to cope with fancy crypto and fancy structures used to manage the Hydra head on-chain state.
KtorZ
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-26T18:03:01.990Z
Also, as I understand it, Hydra subnetworks will be capable of their own consensus/trust models, as well as their own ledger models.
zhekson
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-26T09:19:13.780Z
2021-11-26T09:19:13.780Z
Sebastian Nagel
<p>As I understand Hydra protocol has two main components:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/299.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Hydra Head protocol</a></li>
<li><a href="https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1188.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Hydra Interhead protocol</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Does any of these components require changes to current consensus protocol? If not, how will it be implemented? My guess is as a smart contract + some network communication protocol (possibly p2p).</p>

<hydra>
Will Hydra protocol implementation require changes in consensus protocol (Ouroboros)?
# Will Hydra protocol implementation require changes in consensus protocol (Ouroboros)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-11-26)

As I understand Hydra protocol has two main components:

1. [Hydra Head protocol](https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/299.pdf)
2. [Hydra Interhead protocol](https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1188.pdf)

Does any of these components require changes to current consensus protocol? If not, how will it be implemented? My guess is as a smart contract + some network communication protocol (possibly p2p).

**Tags:** hydra

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-11-26. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

No.

Hydra is a layer-two solution which works "on top of" Cardano. A hydra-node which implements the Hydra Head protocol will run alongside the cardano-node and provide an isomorphic state channel which has the same transaction format and ledger rules as Cardano, but with a much simpler consensus. The fact that not the whole network needs to agree to reach consensus in a single Hydra Head, but only the participants of a particular Head, makes this faster & cheaper than to process transactions on the mainchain.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Small addition: while it may not require changes in the current consensus protocol, Hydra makes heavy use of Plutus smart validators and it may require changes in the Plutus core built-ins to cope with fancy crypto and fancy structures used to manage the Hydra head on-chain state.  
> **username_3**: Also, as I understand it, Hydra subnetworks will be capable of their own consensus/trust models, as well as their own ledger models.  

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