Late reply but noted this now.<p>We disagree. Perfect clock obviates the need for <i>protocol</i> based consensus mechanism. Paxos &amp; friends have substantial latency costs. Secondary effects of protocol based approach include NAK storms, reduction of available bandwidth (consumed by the chatty consensus protocol packets). Tertiary effects include triggering of congestion control mechanisms.<p>There is zero question that a distributed system built on high fidelity clocks will mop the proverbial floor in terms of performance.