Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process

No deterministic protocol does all three. Any protocol that is always safe has an execution that never decides.

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Design paper
Official source

Record

Authors: Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. Paterson
Date: 1985
Publisher: Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. Paterson
Version: Source cited by the 1985 study. The study is the reading. This page does not add a second essay.
Document ID: BLC-STUDY-0148
DOI: None recorded
Last reviewed: 1 October 2026
Licence: No licence recorded. Rights status under review.

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Direct answer

No deterministic protocol does all three. Any protocol that is always safe has an execution that never decides.

Where to read

Official source — Journal of the ACM
Blockchain Lab study, the canonical readingOriginal commentary. Not a transcription of the paper.

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Full text

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What changed

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Relationships

Canonical readingFLP study
Related paperPaxos
Related paperPartial Synchrony

Cite this record

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Author–date

Fischer, M. J., Lynch, N. A., & Paterson, M. S. (1985). Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process. Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. Paterson. https://groups.csail.mit.edu/tds/papers/Lynch/jacm85.pdf

BibTeX

@techreport{flp1985,
  title = {Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process},
  author = {Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. Paterson},
  year = {1985},
  institution = {Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. Paterson},
  url = {https://groups.csail.mit.edu/tds/papers/Lynch/jacm85.pdf},
  note = {Rights status: Official external source only. Blockchain Lab record: https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/flp}
}

RIS

TY  - RPRT
TI  - Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process
AU  - Michael J. Fischer
AU  - Nancy A. Lynch
AU  - Michael S. Paterson
PY  - 1985
PB  - Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. Paterson
UR  - https://groups.csail.mit.edu/tds/papers/Lynch/jacm85.pdf
N1  - Rights status: Official external source only
ER  -

CSL-JSON

[
  {
    "type": "report",
    "id": "BLC-STUDY-0148",
    "title": "Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process",
    "author": [
      {
        "literal": "Michael J. Fischer"
      },
      {
        "literal": "Nancy A. Lynch"
      },
      {
        "literal": "Michael S. Paterson"
      }
    ],
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
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    "publisher": "Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. Paterson",
    "URL": "https://groups.csail.mit.edu/tds/papers/Lynch/jacm85.pdf",
    "note": "Rights status: Official external source only. Not a licence to republish the paper."
  }
]

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Rights record

Source status: Official source
Use status: Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.
Rights: Official external source only
Training and retrieval: Not permitted from this site. There is no rights-cleared full text to retrieve or to train on.

Rights and licensing Corrections