The beginning of this week saw heated debates which have already been labelled a Wikipedia Edit war over the attempts to remove the terms ‘permissionless’ and ‘bitcoin’ from the blockchain entry on Wikipedia.
The revision history on the website shows two particular terms standing out – ‘bitcoin’ and ‘permissionless’. Collaborative knowledge creation
Wikipedia is often the first site for getting quick information on various topics. As the interest in the term ‘blockchain’ has been quite vivid lately, it is of the highest importance to provide a clear explanation of the concept to all interested out there. Wikipedia provides information on what the blockchain actually is.
The community nature of the platform means that all of the information that is stored there is contributed by volunteers, who have the rights to add and edit articles.
When editors disagree about the content of a page repeatedly, they can override each other’s contributions, sometimes making dubious and often constant additions and edits. Permissionless vs. permissioned
The disagreement between editors this time concerned the use of terms ‘permissioned’ and ‘permissionless’ and their application to the concept of blockchain.
The incident caught the attention of Jon Matonis , one of the most prominent members of the Bitcoin and blockchain community.
Matonis expresses his concern on Twitter : “There’s a Wikipedia edit war now going on to remove terms ‘permissionless’ and ‘bitcoin’ from the blockchain entry.” Permissionless, or public accessibility, stands at the core of blockchain technology and is used to power the BitcoinCT r: 8 network, and most digital currency enthusiasts seem to be aware of this fact, therefore they see little to no sense to remove this type of information from its Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia editing policy According to Wikipedia’s editing policy, any edit warring can lead to certain sanctions.The platform uses a bright-line rule called the three-revert […]
