&gt; If they could, distributed algorithms would do without clocks entirely, but then consensus becomes impossible<p>Consensus can be achieved without clocks using blockchains: Instead of timelocking the resource, client can broadcast his altered version after making changes to the network. The next client than then start working on top of this changed resource, but since multiple versions might be floating around (due to timing issues in the first place) the longest tree wins. So if a client submits work done on a shorter tree then it is rejected by the network.<p>This has other issues like it takes longer time &amp; reorganization risks but it does away with clocks altogether by providing a different method of timestamping.<p>This is similar to proof-of-work timestamp server that bitcoin uses but we can do away with proof-of-work because the resource and membership in the network is centralised.