Consistent discretizations and quantum gravity

We review a recent proposal for the construction of a quantum theory of the gravitational field. The proposal is based on approximating the continuum theory by a discrete theory that has several attractive properties, among them, the fact that in its canonical formulation it is free of constraints. This allows to bypass many of the hard conceptual problems of traditional canonical quantum gravity. In particular the resulting theory implies a fundamental mechanism for decoherence and bypasses the black hole information paradox.