This is now becoming more complicated, the urge seems to be that we eventually include all information.. I don't want to describe POW or POS, but I do need to explain the mechanism of consensus (it's the main element of trust - not the algos, those provide a mechanism that can be trusted, the consensus establishes the real world trust) without really getting technical... ie:

Computers do stuff, they then agree that the stuff was done properly. Anybody who doesn't agree, ie fails validity in the face of consensus, is considered 'bad'.