Provisional Order on Web3 Word Avoidance
Several terms have been identified as requiring a two-second pause before deployment. The pause is rarely taken.
Classification Notice: Web3 Vocabulary Review Provisional Order No. 7, April 2022
TERMS UNDER REVIEW
The following terms have been identified as exhibiting properties that warrant careful handling. They are not banned. Banning words has a poor record. They are classified.
DECENTRALIZED
Classification: Frequently Applicable, Often Redundant
The term is used to describe a system in which no single entity exercises control. This is a meaningful property. It matters.
The term is also used to describe systems that have a central controlling entity, where the entity prefers not to be identified as such.
Users are advised to verify the claim before accepting the framing.
TRUSTLESS
Classification: Technically Accurate, Emotionally Complicated
The term describes systems designed to operate without requiring participants to trust one another. This is a technical property with legitimate applications.
It has become a selling point. The selling point is that you do not need to trust us because you cannot trust anyone. This is not a comfort. It is a worldview.
REVOLUTION
Classification: High Frequency, Low Predictive Value
The word has appeared in the description of many technologies since 2008. It does not predict which technologies will be widely adopted. It does not predict which will not. It is approximately neutral as a signal.
The word is not wrong. It is correct in the way that a hammer is correct when all problems are nails.
INEVITABLE
Classification: Retrospective Only
This term is used to describe future outcomes. Outcomes described as inevitable in advance have a mixed record of actually occurring.
The term acquires accuracy after the fact. Using it in advance is permitted but carries no informational content.
NOTICE OF EFFECT
This classification has no enforcement mechanism. The terms will continue to appear. They will be used by people who mean them sincerely and by people who have identified them as effective.
This office accepts the situation. The documentation is filed for reference, not for remedy.
Issued under provisional authority until further notice.