When we talk about trustless systems, we imply a kind of application for which users have no confidence. The idea is that it just, accurate and honest, works every time, without ever cheating users. They are designed so that users should not trust any people or entity.
Again confidential systems are an alternative to the centralized applications that are used today, which are completely dependent on trust. Take your mobile bank application, for example. Undoubtedly you are pretty sure that nobody will steal your savings because you trust that the bank itself will keep them safe.
Web3 systems miss this type of centralized authority, which is why they must be familiar with design. But so far they are falling short of being truly confidential.
You can’t trust blockchain yet
Code is supposed to be the law in trustless systems. Smart contracts are designed to automatically carry out transactions when specified conditions are met. They use in advance defined rules to prevent manipulation, and in most cases they work well enough. Yet that is not always the case. Because the code itself is written by people, it remains susceptible to bugs and vulnerabilities, and therefore there have been countless multi-million dollar hacks in the history of crypto multi-million.
The Oracle problem is another challenge for trustless systems. Oracles bring Real-World data, such as weather conditions, stock prices and sports results, on-chain, but this can only be done with human intervention. The oracles are made by people and DAPP users must trust these oracles, and therefore systems are entered to verify their data. If data is not verified, the ‘confidential’ nature of the block chains they use would be endangered. So although the network may be decentralized, it is still based on the integrity of other systems.
Trust also becomes clear in other ways. Certain blockchain projects or Dapp’s can get immediate credibility based on the reputation of the person involved. A project in which Vitalik Buterin, perhaps the most famous blockchain personality of all, is involved, would, for example, get immediate credibility, and that association would probably affect the perspective of others. Many users would probably assume that it is absolutely not a scam, simply because of his involvement.
In addition, certain types of digital assets require trust. One of the most obvious of this is “Wrapped Bitcoin” or WBTC, a cryptocurrency that lives on the Ethereum -Blockchain. It is linked to the price of the original Bitcoin, and this is done by undertaking every WBTC that is beaten with one BTC. But the BTC itself is held by a private company called Bitgo, which acts as the custodian of those assets, which means that everyone who uses WBTC must trust it.
Blockchain’s dependence on human supervision, despite all the claims on the opposite, it means that it is not entirely reliable, so that it is exposed to risks such as the reintroduction of centralization. For example, a group of developers who are charged with updating smart contract code, or the operator of a popular oracle can influence a network in negative ways or act malicious, causing users to at risk.
The need for trust also evokes blockchain claims about transparency in question. Although the transactions on a decentralized ledger can be publicly visible and verifiable, the motivations and actions of human actors involved in coding, exploiting oracles or taking custody are certainly not.
Layer-3 Strengthen Digital Trust
The somewhat less than troubled nature of blockchain-based systems is not not recognized, and that explains why Layer-3 networks such as Orbs try to put the right to build more robust mechanisms that reduce the need for human supervision.
ORBS builds a decentralized “version layer” on top of Layer-1 and Layer-2 block chains, improves their possibilities and performance, and as part of those efforts it also works to increase the delay. It is based on an independent network of decentralized ‘guardians’ that are encouraged to maintain his integrity, with the threat of serious financial fines if they misbehave. These nodes are responsible for performing complex calculations and can interact with smart contracts hosted on multiple block chains, allowing Orbs to function as a safe and verifiable layer for off-chain logic. With the help of the infrastructure of ORBS, Dapps can implement advanced functionality that is not possible when working directly on an L1 or L2 network.
It is crucial that the infrastructure of ORBS can help to minimize dependence on human supervision. The permissionless and verifiable implementation environment can automate and protect advanced processes that would otherwise require the use of trusted intermediaries, improving the confidential nature of block chains and Dapps.
ORBS also supports a reputation system that runs on its L3 network, allowing blockchain users to make decentralized identities that prove their names, ages and qualifications without revealing them to someone. These DIDs can then be used on any blockchain that integrates with Orbs, making them interoperable in web3 and increasing digital trust.
Delete intermediaries and stores
The efforts of ORBS to build trust in the infrastructure layer are supplemented with various other initiatives in the blockchain world that try to crush the need for intermediaries and human supervision.
For example, Humanity Protocol has created a proof-of-humanity consensus mechanism that is designed to provide evidence that blockchain users are real people, in contrast to bots or just someone’s second (or third or fourth) account. It is an essential tool for blockchain governance, especially in Daos who try to increase fairness with more advanced voice systems that avoid token-weight. It shifts the confidence of human supervision of cryptographic evidence, which makes trustless verification of users that ensure that no individual can get more influence on a protocol, simply by making multiple portfolios.
In the meantime, a project called Zeus focuses on managers with ZBTC, an alternative to WBTC that lives on the Solana blockchain. Instead of sending money to a custodian to Mintactiva, Zeus uses a permissionless architecture, where the BTC is kept safe by a network of validators, known as “Guardians”. Funds are bridged from Bitcoin to Solana via the Zeus Programma Library, which is one ZBTC token for every BTC that has been dropped off.
When a user sends BTC to the ZEUS program library, those funds are safely stored in a smart contract that is managed by the Network of Guardians, and an equivalent amount of ZBTC -Tokens then becomes the wallet where they came from. The Guardians work together to control those smart contracts, and no guardian can unlock them without approval from all others. This means that the BTC can only be unlocked as soon as the ZBTC is beaten in place, is sent back to the Zeus program library and burned.
Believe me, it gets better
Projects such as Orbs, Humanity Protocol and Zeus strive to create more reliable and watertight digital ecosystems that reduce the need for human intervention. This is the key, because as long as people are obliged to maintain or intervene to correct things, there will always be an element of confidence in blockchain-based systems. By reducing trust, we can increase decentralization and in turn this means greater honesty and transparency.
Although it may not be possible to fully eliminate the need for trust, the continuous innovation of these projects can help to minimize dependence on people to a extent that no entity has sufficient influence to manipulate systems to their advantage.