{"document_id":"BLC-STUDY-0146","slug":"byzantine-generals","title":"The Byzantine Generals Problem","authors":"Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak and Marshall Pease","year":1982,"date_label":"1982","publisher":"Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak and Marshall Pease","paper_type":"Design paper","category":"Consensus","topics":["Consensus"],"source_url":"https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/byz.pdf","source_label":"Lamport, Shostak, Pease","legacy_pdf_path":null,"sha256":null,"sha256_note":"No hash is published. This build does not store those PDF bytes, so a checksum would be invented. Where a legacy path exists, it points at the Internet Archive copy of the old library.","version":"Source cited by the 1982 study. The study is the reading. This page does not add a second essay.","doi":null,"rights_status":"Official external source only","source_status":"Official source","use_status":"Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.","licence":null,"licence_label":"No licence recorded. Rights status under review.","full_text":null,"full_text_reason":"Full text is not published on this page. Public availability is not a licence to republish a document. Blockchain Lab has not recorded a licence that permits an HTML transcription, a training set, or a retrieval corpus of the paper. Text on this page is Blockchain Lab's own wording, or a pointer to a study that is also Blockchain Lab's wording.","editorial_line":"With oral messages, more than two thirds must be loyal. With signed messages, any number of traitors can be tolerated if a loyal commander is heard.","canonical_url":"https://blockchainlab.com/whitepaper/byzantine-generals","record_url":"https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/byzantine-generals","study_url":"https://blockchainlab.com/whitepaper/byzantine-generals","last_reviewed":"2026-10-01","last_checked":"2026-10-01","relationships":[{"rel":"Canonical reading","label":"Byzantine Generals study","href":"/whitepaper/byzantine-generals"},{"rel":"Related paper","label":"PBFT","href":"/whitepaper/pbft"},{"rel":"Related paper","label":"HotStuff","href":"/whitepaper/hotstuff"}]}