Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.07.30
Do You Need a Blockchain? (Wüst & Gervais, 2017) lists six properties to compare ledgers and central systems. What are they?
Public verifiability, transparency, privacy, integrity, redundancy, and the trust anchor.
| Property | What it means |
|---|---|
| Public verifiability | Anyone can verify the state was updated per the protocol |
| Transparency | How much of the data/update process observers can see (not all-or-nothing) |
| Privacy | Protecting individual information from disclosure |
| Integrity | Data is protected from unauthorized modification (tightly linked to public verifiability) |
| Redundancy | Data survives failures — via replication across writers (blockchain) or backups/servers (central) |
| Trust anchor | Who holds the highest authority to grant/revoke read and write access |
The two that most distinguish blockchains are public verifiability (central systems can't offer it) and where the trust anchor sits (nobody vs a central authority). Transparency and privacy are the pair in constant tension.
Go deeper:
Wüst & Gervais, "Do you need a Blockchain?" (IACR ePrint 2017/375) — the source that defines and compares these six properties (see its comparison table).