Origin
Byzantine refers to the Byzantine Generals' Problem, an agreement problem (first proposed by Marshall Pease, Robert Shostak, and Leslie Lamport in 1980) in which generals of the Byzantine Empire's army must decide unanimously whether to attack some enemy army(The Byzantine Army was chosen as an example for the problem as the Byzantine state experienced frequent treachery among the high levels of its administration). The problem is complicated by the geographic separation of the generals, who must communicate by sending messengers to each other, and by the presence of traitors amongst the generals. These traitors can act arbitrarily in order to achieve the following aims: trick some generals into attacking; force a decision that is not consistent with the generals' desires, e.g. forcing an attack when no general wished to attack; or confusing some generals to the point that they are unable to make up their minds. If the traitors succeed in any of these goals, any resulting attack is doomed, as only a concerted effort can result in victory.
Byzantine fault tolerance can be achieved, if the loyal (non-faulty) generals have a unanimous agreement on their strategy. Note that if the source general is correct, all loyal generals must agree upon that value. Otherwise, the choice of strategy agreed upon is irrelevant.
Read more about this topic: Byzantine Fault Tolerance
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