CockroachDB leverages consensus algorithms to ensure data consistency across distributed systems, addressing common challenges like log truncation, snapshotting, membership changes, replay protection, and read leases. Despite these implementations being largely standard, the inherent slowness of consensus operations remains a significant challenge due to the necessity of communication between nodes. This latency is influenced by factors such as geographic distance between nodes, which can significantly impact performance. CockroachDB employs the Raft consensus protocol to manage these complexities, providing solutions like stable leading replicas for local reads and preemptive snapshotting during membership changes. However, the text explores potential improvements, particularly in optimizing read operations to reduce latency by allowing local node reads without sacrificing consistency. It suggests possibilities such as special majority agreements to ensure up-to-date reads and discusses challenges like maintaining the integrity of logical timestamps in a Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) database. The text concludes by acknowledging that while CockroachDB's current use of consensus algorithms is effective, further advancements in reducing latency and improving efficiency are on the horizon.