Computer Science

Byzantine Fault Tolerance, explained

Byzantine fault tolerance is the ability of a distributed system to keep working even when some nodes behave arbitrarily or maliciously.
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Part of the Semantic Notion technical glossary.

Short Definition

Byzantine fault tolerance is the ability of a distributed system to keep working even when some nodes behave arbitrarily or maliciously.

Intuition

The system must reach agreement even when some participants lie, send conflicting messages, or fail unpredictably.

Technical Definition

BFT protocols provide safety and liveness under a Byzantine failure model, usually requiring stronger quorum assumptions than crash-fault protocols.

Example

Some blockchain consensus systems are designed around Byzantine fault tolerance.

Common Misunderstandings

BFT is not required for every distributed system.
Byzantine guarantees are more expensive than crash-fault assumptions.

Same Category

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AlgorithmAn algorithm is a precise procedure for solving a problem or computing a result.CacheA cache stores recently or frequently used data in a faster location so future access is quicker.Cache CoherenceCache coherence is the property that multiple caches maintain a consistent view of shared data.CAP TheoremCAP theorem says a distributed data system cannot simultaneously guarantee consistency, availability, and partition tolerance during a network partition.ConcurrencyConcurrency is the ability of a system to make progress on multiple tasks during overlapping time periods.ConsensusConsensus is the process by which distributed nodes agree on a value or sequence of decisions despite failures.

Related Reading

Essays that use this concept

Computer ScienceThe Byzantine Generals Problem

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