Principle 1 of 10
Trustlessness
No single party can alter the ledger without meeting the Byzantine fault threshold.
Trustlessness is the definitional property of a distributed ledger. A ledger that requires trust in a central party is a database with extra steps. Every other principle in the ProtoLedger standard is a mechanism for making trustlessness real rather than rhetorical.
Scoring Rubric
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 7–10 | BFT proven (f < n/3), no trusted setup, no admin keys, no foundation-controlled upgrade mechanism. |
| 4–6 | BFT proven but upgrade path controlled by a multisig foundation wallet. |
| 0–3 | Admin keys exist that can alter state unilaterally. |
Data Sources
- On-chain validator set composition
- Protocol specification review
- Admin key audits