trustless

From trust +‎ -less.

trustless (not comparable)

1. Lacking trust; untrusting.
2. (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, →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.

3. (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?

• strutless