A protein activation cascade that contributes to blood coagulation and consists of events leading from the formation of activated factor X to the formation of active thrombin, the cleavage of fibrinogen by thrombin, and the formation of cleaved fibrin into a stable multimeric, cross-linked complex. [ GOC:mah GOC:pde http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1931959 GOC:add ]