Patent ID: 8073897

Claim:
A method for selecting a value in a distributed computing system having a maximum number of malicious devices, the method comprising: transmitting, to a first quorum of devices in the distributed computing system, a request with a client authenticator and a group of forwarded prior vote messages with authenticators, the group of forwarded prior vote messages with authenticators comprising more copies of prior vote messages than three times the maximum number of malicious devices in the distributed computing system, wherein the group of forwarded prior vote messages with authenticators indicate a set of safe values for a proposal number for current and future steps, and further wherein the request with the client authenticator comprises an indication of the proposal number and a requested value from the set of safe values; receiving, from a second quorum of devices in the distributed computing system, a quorum of properly authenticated vote messages indicating an acceptance of the request; and transmitting, to a subset of the devices in the distributed computing system, a selection message with authenticator and the quorum of properly authenticated vote messages, the selection message with authenticator indicating that the requested value was selected.