How Does a BFT-based Consensus Mechanism Prevent a Malicious Node from Disrupting the Network?

BFT mechanisms, like pBFT, ensure safety as long as less than one-third of the validator nodes are malicious or fail. They work by having all non-faulty nodes agree on the state through a series of message exchanges: prepare, commit, and reply.

The protocol allows honest nodes to reach consensus even when some nodes send conflicting or incorrect information. This resilience is based on the ability to detect and ignore faulty nodes while ensuring all honest nodes commit the same transaction order.