"The consensus mechanism, called Open Representative Voting (ORV), also provides useful differentiation from other networks. Consensus is reached through representatives voting on the validity of individual blocks shared on the network. The voting weight for each representative is assigned to them by the account owners and is in proportion to the Nano in those accounts. Account owners can still use funds without restrictions as no staking is involved and the representatives have no control over funds, they just get voting rights from them."

ref: https://nano.org/