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Re:FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns by hinkley on Friday November 11, 2022 @10:54PM (#33569793)
> Distributed consensus is necessary if you want high availability and replication for your Merkle tree.

No, distributed consensus is necessary if you're willing to sacrifice correctness for availability.

>> public safety

> So this distributed consensus thing, Byzantine Fault Tolerance,

Show me a blockchain that actually implements BFT. Longest chain wins is not Byzantine Fault Tolerance.

Re:FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns by killerstorm on Saturday November 12, 2022 @06:10AM (#33572028)
> No, distributed consensus is necessary if you're willing to sacrifice correctness for availability.

?!?!

Do you think it's most correct to have only one replica?

> Show me a blockchain that actually implements BFT.

A lot of blockchains implement some variant of PBFT. Including the one I made: https://gitlab.com/chromaway/postchain/

Re:FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns by hinkley on Saturday November 12, 2022 @01:02PM (#33575405)
Specifically, longest chain is Might Makes Right, which is not consensus, it’s leader following.

If I makes you feel any better, I see Raft as only BFT during leader election, the rest of the time if the leader is a bad actor then everything is fucked. It’s a game of Secret Hitler.

Remember, the Byzantine Generals problem is what the BFT term is acknowledging, and the problem with the generals was one of sabotage, not just missing messages. It’s only statistically unlikely that longest chain is created in earnest and not via malfeasance. But the bigger a system scales the more frequent counterexamples occur. That’s the lesson of every scalable system. Bad days that used to happen once a quarter now happen a couple times a week.

Edit:

> In a consortium blockchain, typically blocks must be approved (signed) by a majority of consortium members.

Well, well. Adults have finally joined the blockchain community. Maybe there’s hope yet.