trustless

English

Etymology

From trust +‎ -less.

Adjective

trustless (not comparable)

Lacking trust; untrusting.
(computing, cryptocurrencies) Which does not need any trust, or a trusted third party.
A trustless network can run even if none of its nodes trusts another.
- 2019, Peter Kent, Tyler Bain, Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 30:
  In the trustless cryptocurrency world, you can still trust the cryptocurrency community and its mechanisms to ensure that the blockchain contains an accurate and immutable—unchangeable—record of cryptocurrency transactions.
- 2020 August, Primavera De Filippi, Morshed Mannan, Wessel Reijers, “Blockchain as a confidence machine: The problem of trust & challenges of governance”, in Technology in Society, volume 62, →DOI:
  This article draws from the extensive academic discussion on the concepts of “trust” and “confidence” to argue that blockchain technology is not a ‘trustless technology’ but rather a ‘confidence machine’.
- 2021, Shin'ichiro Matsuo, Nat Sakimura, editors, Blockchain Gaps: From Myth to Real Life, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 34:
  If it becomes cheaper to use a TTP to verify the transaction than some cryptographic or other automated mechanism, then the benefit of being “trustless” becomes an illusion.
- 2022 June 7, Siobhan Roberts, “How ‘Trustless’ Is Bitcoin, Really?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:
  And the system would be “trustless” — that is, it would not rely on a trusted party, such as a bank or government, to arbitrate transactions.
(obsolete) Untrustworthy; not deserving to be trusted.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
  But thinks it not that […] the voice which the spirit uttereth when he is gone from man […] is a voice proceeding from the spirit which is in earthly, ignorant, and overclouded man; and therefore a trustles and not to be-believed voice?

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