What Is the Byzantine Generals Problem—and How Did Bitcoin Solve It? Imagine a group of generals surrounding a city. They need to agree on a time to attack, but they’re separated and must communicate over potentially unreliable channels. Some of them may be traitors, spreading false information. The challenge? How can they reach consensus—even if some participants are dishonest? This is the Byzantine Generals Problem—a metaphor for the deeper issue of achieving trust and coordination in a decentralized system, especially when some actors can't be trusted. For decades, this was a core challenge in computer science. Then came Bitcoin. Bitcoin solved the Byzantine Generals Problem using: 1. Proof-of-Work: A system where miners expend energy to solve mathematical puzzles, securing the network. 2. Consensus Rules: All nodes follow the same transparent rules and reject invalid blocks. 3. Incentives: Miners are rewarded for honest behavior and punished (economically) for dishonesty. This breakthrough allowed decentralized trust at scale—no central authority, no need to trust any one participant, and yet a global financial ledger stays in perfect sync. Bitcoin didn’t just create sound money—it solved a decades-old problem in distributed computing. Decentralized trust is the foundation of a freer world. #Bitcoin