What is Paxos?

Paxos works without a permanent leader
Each node can have 1 of 3 roles:
  Proposers: Suggest values to be agreed upon.
  Acceptors: Vote to accept or reject proposed values.
  Learners: Learn the decision after consensus.

How it works

Proposer sends a "prepare" message with a proposal number.
Acceptors reply with a promise to ignore older proposals and their last accepted proposal.
If the proposer gets a majority, it sends an "accept" request with the value.
Majority acceptance results in consensus; learners are notified.