Ethereum

Anyone have a comprehensive definition of the word "Trustless"? (Especially for non-crypto folks.)

A doodler and computerer. I like permissive/permissionless open source, smart contracts, p2p systems, room-scale VR, and NixOS.

shazow.net

Currently: WhatsABI

So in this context, trustless means being in control of your money, limiting your exposure to systemic risks, and guaranteeing execution of your agreements.

Satoshi created BTC because your hard-earned currency was being inflated away by bank bailouts and QE; the central banks couldn’t be trusted to preserve your purchasing power. In the extreme, sovereign powers could impose restrictions on how you use your own money. That’s a 1st layer of trustlesnessness from crypto

How do you explain why trusting anybody is bad? What about trusting hardware, software etc?

Something you can interact with (generally a blockchain based app) without trusting anybody. Even if the company developing that application is a bad actor, or the government wants to stop the app for some reason, a trustless app will run as long as the blockchain is there.

“trustless” is a misnomer.

when people say “trustless”, they mean `distrusted`, as you don’t operate with without trust but rather with distrust.

to operate in a distrusted manner is to operate under the assumption of an adversarial setting. blockchain-based crypto networks are adversarial settings.

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