什么是拜占庭将军问题 Byzantine Generals Problem

The Byzantine Generals Problem is a term used to describe the challenges faced by computer systems when one or more components fail. These failures can lead to incorrect information being transmitted within the system, affecting its performance. The name originates from a research paper published in 1982, which compared this problem to a historical military scenario.

Imagine this scenario: several armies of Byzantium plan to besiege an enemy city. Each army has a general, and they can only communicate through messengers. The generals must agree on a plan that meets two requirements: 1) all trustworthy generals follow the same plan; 2) a minority of bad actors cannot cause the good generals to follow a harmful plan.

The main challenge is how the generals can safely share information and reach a consensus. If they cannot agree, their attack might fail. If a cunning general intentionally provides false information to mislead others, that is also a problem.

In distributed computer networks like blockchain, each participant (node) is like a general. For the system to function properly, most nodes must agree on and follow the same instructions. If some nodes fail or become malicious, Byzantine errors occur. Systems that can operate correctly despite these errors are called Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT).

Bitcoin uses a method called proof-of-work to solve this problem. When each “general” (node) determines a plan, they have their computers solve a challenging problem. It is expected that one of them will find a solution within 10 minutes. Once a solution is found, that node shares it with others along with their plan. Then others follow this new plan.

By checking the proof-of-work chain, each node can see how much computational power has been used, and most computers agree on the plan. Therefore, they can trust and follow the plan supported by the longest proof-of-work chain, because most people support it. **$BICO **$TRB **$CBK **