[bdarnell]

In my experience, consensus algorithms are developed as algorithms first, (reference) systems second, and libraries third. The reasons are simply that the algorithm is the most important part, and good libraries are hard. Diego has rightly focused on the algorithm, which has reached maturity before this LogCabin release.

I work on CockroachDB, which uses etcd's Raft implementation, so we are an existence proof that consensus libraries are possible. However, the library we share was the second attempt by the authors (Xiang Li and Yicheng Qin) to create a Raft implementation. The first attempt to develop a "library form" of a consensus algorithm is likely to reach a dead end, but over time it is possible to develop a library-style implementation.