To elaborate a little more, because there seems to be tons of discussion about this when there really shouldn't be. Here is a probabilistic solution to the pro

To elaborate a little more, because there seems to be tons of discussion about this when there really shouldn't be. Here is a probabilistic solution to the problem. 1) Each General sends n messages to all the other generals. 2) After a time period y all the generals count their messages and decide how to act. 3) This is not a "solution" to the original problem. If we lose sufficient messages we may "attack" at the wrong time. However it is a probabilistic solution because as n & y increase we are less likely to make the wrong decision. There are lots of known probabilistic solutions and while I'm a fan of the Bitcoin Protocol the existence of another doesn't change anything for computer scientists.