Limits RegistryPUBLIC RECORD
Limits RegistryConjectured by Eric Brewer in a 2000 keynote and formally proved by Seth Gilbert and Nancy Lynch in 2002: no distributed system can guarantee all three of consistency, availability, and partition tolerance at once. Since network partitions can't be ruled out in practice, real systems choose to sacrifice either strict consistency or full availability during a partition — this is a closed, proven result, not an open engineering target.
The question, scope, and sources behind this Registry record.
Conjectured by Eric Brewer in a 2000 keynote and formally proved by Seth Gilbert and Nancy Lynch in 2002: no distributed system can guarantee all three of consistency, availability, and partition tolerance at once. Since network partitions can't be ruled out in practice, real systems choose to sacrifice either strict consistency or full availability during a partition — this is a closed, proven result, not an open engineering target.
In a distributed data store, at most 2 of the 3 properties Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance can be simultaneously guaranteed in the presence of a network partition.
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Current frontiers derived from accepted Claims.
A theorem result rather than a numeric optimization interval.
The frontier is not sacred
Most progress starts with a disagreement that survives contact with evidence. If you can push the known lower bound up or pull the upper bound down, show us the work.
≥ when you have shown that at least this value is achievable.≤ when you have shown that anything above this value is impossible.No vibes. State the value, define the scope, and link the paper, proof, code, or reproduction that lets another person check it. Editors review every challenge before the public record changes.
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The frontier as it changed over time.
Only accepted Claims matching the current specification contribute to the displayed bounds. Strict inequalities remain open; contradictory Claims require editorial review.
Permanent ID limitsregistry.com/limits/LR-CAP-THEOREM
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Limits Registry. LR-CAP-THEOREM. CAP theorem — distributed system consistency limit. 2026.