What is a BFT protocol?

BFT protocols cover a broad spectrum of design dimensions from infrastructure settings such as the communication topology, to more technical features such as commitment strategy and even fundamental social choice properties like order-fairness.

What is practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT)?

Practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT), Proof of Work (PoW), and Proof of Stake (PoS) are some of the currently used major consensus algorithms that achieve BFT and are practically used in today’s blockchain systems. Let’s look briefly into PBFT and PoW in the lens of BFT.

Can a BFT system continue operating if some nodes fail?

This means that a BFT system is able to continue operating even if some of the nodes fail or act maliciously. There is more than one possible solution to the Byzantine Generals’ Problem and, therefore, multiple ways of building a BFT system.

How does PBFT work?

PBFT is a BFT-based consensus mechanism that is widely used in permissioned blockchain networks. It works by dividing nodes into different roles, including primary, backup, and replica nodes. The primary node is responsible for collecting transaction requests and ordering them before sending them to the backup nodes for verification.