Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is the ability of a distributed system to continue functioning correctly even when some of its participants (nodes) fail or act maliciously. The concept derives from the Byzantine Generals Problem. A BFT system can typically tolerate up to one-third of its nodes being faulty. Many blockchain consensus mechanisms, including Practical BFT (pBFT) and Tendermint, are built on BFT principles to ensure the network reaches agreement despite unreliable participants.