The wire makes no guarantees the protocol did not request.
[ trace // field response ]
It is tempting to imagine the network as a pipe — bytes in one end, bytes out the other. The metaphor is wrong in every direction. The network drops, reorders, duplicates, delays, and corrupts. Every property you want from it is a promise some protocol made on top of the wire.
Designing distributed systems is mostly the work of choosing which promises you can afford and which ones you have to live without. Saying yes to availability is saying no to something else; the trade is non-negotiable.
Treat the wire as hostile geography. Build the smallest protocol that survives it.
