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Mobile Byzantine Agreement in a Trusted World

Authors Bo Pan , Maria Potop-Butucaru

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LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.7.pdf
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Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Distributed algorithms
Keywords
  • Byzantine Agreement
  • Mobile Faults
  • Trusted Abstractions

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Abstract

In this paper, we address the Byzantine Agreement problem in synchronous systems where Byzantine agents can move from process to process, corrupting their host. We focus on two representative models: Garay’s and Buhrman’s models. In Garay’s model, when a process has been left by the Byzantine agent, it enters a cured state, is aware of its condition, and can remain silent for a round to prevent the dissemination of incorrect information. In Buhrman’s model, a Byzantine agent moves together with the message. It has been shown that solving Byzantine Agreement requires at least 4t + 1 processes in Garay’s model, and at least 3t + 1 in Buhrman’s model. In this paper, we aim to increase the tolerance to mobile Byzantine agents by integrating a trusted counter abstraction into both models. This abstraction prevents nodes from equivocating. In the new models, we prove that at least 3t+1, respectively 2t+1 processors are needed to tolerate t mobile Byzantine agents. Furthermore, we propose novel Mobile Byzantine Agreement algorithms that match these new lower bounds for both Garay’s and Buhrman’s models, achieving agreement in 𝒪(n) synchronous rounds.

Cite As Get BibTex

Bo Pan and Maria Potop-Butucaru. Mobile Byzantine Agreement in a Trusted World. In 29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 361, pp. 7:1-7:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025) https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.7

Author Details

Bo Pan
  • Sorbonne Université, CNRS, LIP6, F-75005 Paris, France
Maria Potop-Butucaru
  • Sorbonne Université, CNRS, LIP6, F-75005 Paris, France

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