Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, has described blockchain as a “truth machine” as it gives detailed information on time stamps of messages. Buterin’s statement on social media platform X was inspired by a poster from another user who asked, “Then what is a global universal blockchain?”
Buterin harps on enhanced truth verification systems
In essence, Buterin clarified that a blockchain presents information as it is entered into the system without falsifying or giving room for manipulation of the data entered. The Ethereum co-founder, however, alluded to the limitations of blockchains when he stated that they are not built for fact-checking a query.
A blockchain is a “truth machine” in the specific sense that it provides consensus approximate-truth over when messages were sent. It doesn’t tell you “was the moon landing real?”.
This reduces the blockchain’s attack surface by a lot, but it does mean we need other tools to…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 20, 2024
“A blockchain is a ‘truth machine’… It doesn’t tell you ‘was the moon landing real’?” Buterin wrote.
Notably, Buterin believes a system should be developed to serve as a support structure for blockchains that can assist in the verification of facts beyond just data entry storage.
According to him, the current organization of blockchains limits how much it can be attacked and serves as a strength. However, it is necessary to build “truth-finding” models into the blockchain system.
Grand vision for crypto ecosystem
Some tech experts are divided on the sentiments expressed by Buterin.
While a group of these tech enthusiasts agree that blockchains are only able to provide short temporal consensus and more tools will be required for truth verification and emphasized the roles artificial intelligence and decentralized systems could play in the broader digital space, others consider having a central truth-seeking platform unnecessary.
The Ethereum co-founder is used to putting out his ideas on how to make the broader crypto ecosystem better. He recently opined that forming political allegiances based on who is “pro-crypto” was not the best for the sector. This statement drew strong reactions from Charles Hoskinson, as reported by U.Today.
Lately, Buterin has been busy pushing for adoption of new token standards, ERC-3770 and ERC-7683, as he believes this will improve users’ experiences as regards making payments across Layer-2 networks.
