Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is a property of distributed computing systems that ensures they can continue to operate correctly even when some components fail or behave maliciously, known as Byzantine faults. It addresses scenarios where nodes in a network may send conflicting or incorrect information, requiring consensus mechanisms to maintain system integrity and reliability. This concept is crucial for building robust, fault-tolerant systems in adversarial environments.
Developers should learn BFT when designing distributed systems, such as blockchain networks, financial platforms, or critical infrastructure, where trust among nodes cannot be assumed and resilience to malicious attacks is essential. It is particularly important in decentralized applications, where achieving consensus without a central authority requires protocols that can tolerate arbitrary failures, ensuring data consistency and system availability even under Byzantine conditions.