# CAIN-42 BFT IP report (2026-10-05)

Engineering prioritisation, not patentability. Score classes: 5 DEVELOPING, 3 MATERIAL. The MATERIAL ones sit at the bottom
of that band (23-25/50) and are held down by design-around resistance (1/5). Every candidate has related prior
art and EASY design-arounds.

| id | candidate | score/50 | class | design-around | protection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BFT-IP-0001 | Quorum-committed authorization snapshots with local revocation epoch | 25 | MATERIAL | EASY | TRADE_SECRET (implementation) + DEFENSIVE_PUBLICATION candidate |
| BFT-IP-0002 | Fail-closed consensus stage: permit requires a gateway-verified QC over the exact decision commitment | 25 | MATERIAL | EASY | OPEN_PROTOCOL (commitment + QC format) / TRADE_SECRET (pipeline) |
| BFT-IP-0005 | Evidence posture: proof objects that state what consensus did NOT evaluate + public zero-CAIN verifier + signed hourly proofs | 23 | MATERIAL | EASY | OPEN_PROTOCOL (verifier + formats) |
| BFT-IP-0004 | Model-checked vote-history fast path | 20 | DEVELOPING | EASY | DEFENSIVE_PUBLICATION / OPEN |
| BFT-IP-0003 | Safety-asymmetric consensus deferral (non-permits ordered after reply) | 18 | DEVELOPING | EASY | DEFENSIVE_PUBLICATION |
| BFT-IP-0007 | Group commit with per-decision RFC 6962 inclusion proofs | 18 | DEVELOPING | EASY | OPEN |
| BFT-IP-0006 | Consensus-ordered quarantine + hash-chained Byzantine evidence | 17 | DEVELOPING | EASY | OPEN |
| BFT-IP-0008 | Hybrid Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65 quorum certificates | 14 | DEVELOPING | EASY | OPEN |