What Is the Byzantine Generals’ Problem?
The Byzantine Generals’ Problem is a computer science problem that deals with the issue of distributed computing and fault-tolerance. It was first proposed by Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak, and Marshall Pease in 1982. The problem involves multiple generals who are trying to coordinate an attack on a city from different locations. Each general must decide whether or not to launch their own attack based on messages they receive from other generals. However, some of these messages may be false or unreliable due to malicious actors attempting to disrupt the communication between the generals.
The goal of this problem is to find a way for all the generals to come up with a consensus decision without relying on any single source of information or trusting any individual actor within the system. This has been used as an analogy for many real world problems such as cryptocurrency networks where participants need to agree upon transactions without having complete trust in each other’s data sources. Solutions have been proposed using cryptographic techniques such as digital signatures and hash functions which can help verify message authenticity and ensure agreement among all parties involved in the network.