The Weak Byzantine Generals Problem

Abstract

The Byzantine Generals Problem requires processes to reach agreement upon a value even though some of them may fad. It is weakened by allowing them to agree upon an "incorrect" value if a failure occurs. The transaction eormmt problem for a distributed database Js a special case of the weaker problem. It is shown that, like the original Byzantine Generals Problem, the weak version can be solved only ff fewer than one-third of the processes may fad. Unlike the onginal problem, an approximate solution exists that can tolerate arbaranly many failures.