The Wikipedia Editing Controversy on Permissionless Blockchains

Rage Comment : Wikipedia, the first website to get information on various topics, wants to try to remove the 'permissionless' and 'bitcoin' entries on Wikipedia from the blockchain entries. This debate is mainly about the use of 'permissionless' and 'permissioned' and their application to the concept of blockchain. Permission, or public accessibility, is the core of blockchain technology and is also used to drive blockchain networks. Digital currency enthusiasts have noticed this fact, so they feel that it is meaningless to remove such information from Wikipedia. Bitcoin technology is a fairly new and still developing technology. Many questions about its performance, logic and performance have not been answered, and they will definitely cause more discussions in the future.

Translation: Nicole

The week began with a heated debate over the Wikipedia edit controversy, which focused on an attempt to remove the terms 'permissionless' and 'bitcoin' from the blockchain section of Wikipedia.

The revision log on the website shows two prominent entries - 'Bitcoin' and 'Permissionless'.

Collaborative Knowledge Innovation

Wikipedia is often the first website to get information on various topics. As people are increasingly interested in the term "blockchain", it is important to provide a clear definition of this term. Wikipedia clearly explains the definition of blockchain.

The community nature of the platform means that all stored information is contributed by volunteers, who have the power to add and change articles.

When individual editors disagree with the content of a page, they can overturn their own information, sometimes continually adding edits to the article.

Permissionless vs Permissioned

This debate is mainly about the use of ‘permissionless’ and ‘permissioned’ and their application to the concept of blockchain.

Jon Matonis

The incident received attention from Jon Matonis, one of the most prominent members of the Bitcoin blockchain community.

Matonis expressed his concerns on Twitter:

“There is a Wikipedia editing movement going on right now to remove the terms ‘permissionless’ and ‘bitcoin’ from the blockchain entry.”

Permissionlessness, or public accessibility, is at the heart of blockchain technology and is used to power blockchain networks, a fact that cryptocurrency enthusiasts have noted, so they feel it makes no sense to remove such information from Wikipedia.

Wikipedia Editorial Policy

According to Wikipedia's editing policy, any editing disturbance will be subject to certain sanctions.

The platform uses a bright-line rule called the Three Reversals Rule (3RR), which states that editors cannot make more than three changes to the same page within 24 hours when adding the same or different material.

Retraction refers to the partial or complete cancellation of the editorial content of other editors, which is followed by a series of editing storms.

If the edit storm continues to be published, participants are invited to discuss the content of the talk page and try to reach a consensus, but this will not happen in this particular case.

Sanctions are imposed on users following the incident, such as Satoshilong, who was blocked from Wikipedia after he began editing the controversy.

Earlier this year, he tried advertising his product on the Wikipedia blockchain page.

Caused an uproar

This has sparked some discussion, mainly about whether permissioned designs can be classified as ‘blockchain designs’.

Bitcoin community member Dooglus said

“I’m sorry to say this, but I tend to agree with the current version of this page. Blockchains can be permissioned or permissionless.”

Coinosphere expressed his concerns about whether these licensed designs have commercial use:

“Permissioned blockchains have no value, but they are blockchains, and every blockchain has many blockchains before it, which means a chain of blockchains, regardless of the permissions.”

Various Bitcoin community members viewed the incident as an experiment, questioning the relationship between the term blockchain and digital currency.

The whole debate reminds us of an inconclusive debate - which came first, the chicken or the egg.

John Whelan tweeted:

"So what? There were carts before cars, and the first car wasn't the only one."

Jon Matonis responded:

“Blockchain didn’t exist until Bitcoin. Distributed ledgers (lack of immutability) date back to w/Oracle.”

Bitcoin enthusiast says:

“It’s disturbing.”

Bitcoin technology is a fairly new and still developing technology, and many questions about its performance, logic, and capabilities remain unanswered, and they will surely spark more discussion in the future.

But, and this is something that worries all blockchain technology enthusiasts very much, what if someone adds editorial information to existing content, misinterprets things or deliberately wants to hide the motives behind it.

There is obviously nothing stopping anyone from trying to hinder the development of blockchain technology.