Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)

Byzantine Fault Tolerance is a property of a distributed computer system, where components of the system may fail and there is imperfect information on whether a component has failed. In terms of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, BFT is a characteristic of a system that assures consensus will be reached even when some nodes disseminate false information or don't perform their duties.

The term comes from a problem in distributed computing known as the Byzantine Generals Problem, where different generals (nodes) must agree on a common battle plan (consensus), even though some generals may be traitors (faulty nodes). In the context of blockchain technology, BFT is a vital property as it assures the integrity and reliability of the blockchain, even in the face of faulty nodes.