<blockquote>
  <p>Can we say that Proof-of-work is a type of Byzantine fault tolerance
  (BFT) ? In other words, is PoW a subset of BFT?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yeah I think you can say that.</p>

<p>Proof-of-work is a proposed (and pretty well tested at this point) solution to the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170205142845/http://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/byz.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Byzantine Generals Problem</a>, and therefore achieves <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Byzantine Fault Tolerance</a>. The Byzantine faults that it solves includes the classic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spending" rel="nofollow noreferrer">double spend</a>.</p>

<p>The Byzantine Generals Problem is an illustration of the difficulty in arriving at consensus in a distributed network.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-12T14:22:34.383Z
2018-09-12T14:22:34.383Z
JBaczuk
<p>Can we say that <code>Proof-of-work</code> is a type of <code>Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT)</code> ? In other words, is <strong>PoW</strong> a subset of <strong>BFT</strong> ? Or they are two different categories?</p>

<p><strong>Please note</strong> that there is a similar question here (<a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/75923/41513">BFT VS Bitcoin PoW VS PBFT</a>) but without any answer.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-21T12:42:06.487Z
Does this answer your question? [BFT VS Bitcoin PoW VS PBFT](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/75923/bft-vs-bitcoin-pow-vs-pbft)
ezio
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-26T10:40:25.947Z
Does this answer your question? [Difference between PoW and BFT](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/88906/difference-between-pow-and-bft)
Antoine Poinsot
<proof-of-work><consensus>
Is "Proof-of-work" a subset of "Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT)"?
Questioner
# Is "Proof-of-work" a subset of "Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT)"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-09-12)

Can we say that `Proof-of-work` is a type of `Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT)` ? In other words, is **PoW** a subset of **BFT** ? Or they are two different categories?

**Please note** that there is a similar question here ([BFT VS Bitcoin PoW VS PBFT](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/75923/41513)) but without any answer.

**Tags:** proof-of-work, consensus

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Does this answer your question? [BFT VS Bitcoin PoW VS PBFT](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/75923/bft-vs-bitcoin-pow-vs-pbft)  
> **username_2**: Does this answer your question? [Difference between PoW and BFT](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/88906/difference-between-pow-and-bft)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-09-12. Score: 3

> Can we say that Proof-of-work is a type of Byzantine fault tolerance
> (BFT) ? In other words, is PoW a subset of BFT?

Yeah I think you can say that.

Proof-of-work is a proposed (and pretty well tested at this point) solution to the [Byzantine Generals Problem](https://web.archive.org/web/20170205142845/http://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/byz.pdf), and therefore achieves [Byzantine Fault Tolerance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance). The Byzantine faults that it solves includes the classic [double spend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spending).

The Byzantine Generals Problem is an illustration of the difficulty in arriving at consensus in a distributed network.


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