[Pexel](https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-having-a-meeting-7731327/)
This topic may sound on familiar to many but it is not really unfamiliar. Blockchains are normally designed to hide this decentralization feature which makes it a digital ledger and maintained by computer nodes in a distributed network.
Blockchain technology allows the creation of trustless economic systems that are operated transparently without the need for intermediaries when transactions are placed or executed. Moss participants of a crypto network just like other distributed computing systems need to come to an agreement or consensus on the current state of a blockchain.
**Reaching a consensus seems to be a safe and effective way in most distributed networks**. The process whereby some of the computer nodes fail or act dishonestly when it comes to consensus achievements or when a grain on a decision is called the problem of Byzantine generals which brought about the Byzantine fault tolerance.
**Byzantine General's problem started in the year 1982 when Byzantine General's Groups** have had communication problems when trying to agree on their next move or action to take. This problem assumes its generals how to agree on either there will be attacking or retreating and that each general has its own army situated around the city ready to attack from different angles.
They have to agree or reach a consensus on a common decision in order to execute it in coordination without causing trouble for the other generals. **A general must have to agree before executing a decision**. Each general would decide first then the decision would be made after which they must reach a consensus.
**Communication problems are related to the fact that a general is only able to communicate their messages** passed on all forwarded by a courier may be delayed or lost. Even if the messages gets delivered, one general matures to act maliciously and send messages that seems fraudulent to other generals, confusing them and leading them to be failures.
[Pexel](https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-silver-pen-signing-photographers-signature-175045/)
**The same context is applied to the blockchain mechanism where a consensus must be reached.** The general's represent network nodes on these blockchains and the nodes need to reach a consensus or agreement on the current state of the system.
**They have to agree and execute the same action in order to avoid failure in any form.** This consensus can be attained only if there are at least ⅔ or more reliable network nodes in a distributed system. If the majority of network decides to go maliciously, the distributed system is susceptible to attacks. So this brings us to the Byzantine fault tolerance.
[Pexel](https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-person-in-long-sleeved-shirt-shakehand-955395/)
It is the property of a system to resist the class of failures derived or brought about from the **Byzantine General's Problems**. The BFT system would be able to continue operating even if majority of nodes act maliciously. This is what it means. For a blockchain to achieve BFT, we must understand what consensus algorithm is.
It is the mechanism in which a blockchain network reaches and agreement or consensus and the two common implementations we know are the **POW and POS**. The POW consensus algorithm defines how these primary rules of a system will be followed to reach a consensus i.e during validation of transactions. The proof of work is not 100% tolerant to the **Byzantine Fault but POW** has proven to be one of the most reliable implementations for blockchain networks due to the underlying cryptographic techniques involved.
In conclusion, having an efficient network communication along with a good consensus mechanism is vital to the blockchain and reduces the risks of undergoing failures or attacks.
> **Disclaimer** :Any financial and crypto market information provided in this post was written for informational purposes only and does not constitute 100% investment advice. It's just basic knowledge every crypto trader or investor should have
