Byzantine Quorum Systems

Definition ∞ Byzantine Quorum Systems are collections of participants in a distributed network whose collective agreement is necessary to perform an operation, even when some participants exhibit arbitrary, malicious behavior. These systems are structured to ensure that any two quorums intersect, guaranteeing that honest nodes within those quorums can detect and prevent inconsistencies caused by Byzantine faults. This design enhances the resilience and integrity of decentralized systems. They are fundamental to achieving robust consensus in adversarial environments.
Context ∞ The concept of Byzantine Quorum Systems is central to the security and live properties of many blockchain protocols and distributed ledgers. News regarding new consensus algorithms often highlights their reliance on or improvements upon these quorum structures to achieve fault tolerance. Debates frequently involve optimizing quorum sizes and configurations to balance security with performance and decentralization in diverse network settings.