# PermitBFT: Exploring the Byzantine Fast-Path

## TL;DR

PermitBFT is a permissioned Byzantine Fault Tolerance protocol that achieves low latency of two message delays by decentralizing decision-making and allowing nodes to send permits proactively, even with Byzantine replicas present.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel BFT protocol that maintains low latency despite Byzantine faults by separating decision powers and removing reliance on a single leader.

## Key findings

- Achieves 2-message delay latency in BFT consensus
- Supports up to f < n/3 Byzantine replicas
- Decentralizes decision-making process

## Abstract

PermitBFT establishes a permissioned byzantine ledger in the partially synchronous networking model. For n replicas, PermitBFT tolerates up to f < n/3 byzantine replicas. It is the first BFT protocol to achieve a latency of just 2 message delays despite tolerating byzantine replicas throughout the "fast track", as long as they are not the leader. The design of PermitBFT relies on two fundamental concepts. First, in PermitBFT the participating nodes do not wait for a distinguished leader to act and subsequently confirm its actions, but send permits to the next leader proactively. Second, PermitBFT achieves a separation of the decision powers that are usually concentrated on a single leader node. A leader in PermitBFT controls which transactions to include in a new block, but not where to append the block in the block graph.