What is The Byzantine Generals Problem?
The problem defines how generals can issue commands without a centralised communication structure while remaining robust in the face of bad actors who might try to issue malicious commands to the army.
The Byzantine army is encamped outside a city broken into divisions, each controlled by a general. Generals have no means to communicate other than through messengers. There are traitorous generals in the army who will try to issue commands that prevent the loyal generals from reaching agreement on a reasonable plan forward, so the messaging protocol must ensure that message receivers can know that they are from a loyal general.
Anyone can present a message to a general claiming it to be from another general so the protocol must have a means for generals to know with certainty that any proposed moves are from another general. A cipher that demonstrates the message is from a real general is needed. In Bitcoin, Proof of Work demonstrates a node's authority to write blocks to the ledger. This is a core element of Nakamoto Consensus.
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