Trustless: episode 1 -- what does "trustless" mean?
[Image taken from here]
Have you heard that Bitcoin (and some other cryptocurrencies) are "trustless", and wondered what this means?
The Bitcoin network is trustless in the sense that the nodes in the network don't need to trust each other. A node doesn't need to trust that its neighbor is telling the truth, because it can easily verify truth through calculations.
This is what allows the network to be "decentralized". The arbiter of truth is not a particular node/person/company, the arbiter is simply math. There is no center, no central authority, except math. (Obviously, if the math turns out to be flawed, the system falls apart. This is not impossible, so it should be kept in mind.)
So here you go, in a nutshell, you now know why Bitcoin is called trustless.
Want to learn more about trustlessness? Check out the next episode!
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