I don't think there is compatibility in Bitcoin apart from a minimum level of consensus, with everyone doing their part to check things out and exclude things that violate the basic protocol and build on the longer chain.

Consensus is the result of voting, and therefore consensus can change the basic rules and laws. For example, if people agree to increase the number of bitcoins to 100 million, this will not happen.
Bitcoin also brought together many people from different schools of thought on simple basic rules.