One of the major appeals of the Blockchain is that it's an immutable ledger, meaning you can't change or undo any activity.
This means you can't just press Ctrl + Y for cryptocurrency transactions. While this feature has its merits, it comes with its risks. Billions have been carted away by hackers or lost as a result of mistakes.
But what if crypto transactions were reversible?
A team from Stanford University recently proposed creating “reversible” Ethereum-based tokens. Essentially, coins or NFTs designed in such a way that users could undo a transaction within a set period of time, say 3 hours or 3 days.
How it works
At the end of the three days, if there are no issues, the transaction becomes permanent.
But if there was a mistake or a scammer stole your tokens, you could request to have the funds returned. The request isn’t automatically fulfilled as a decentralised network of selected judges have to review disputes and grant consent for the reversal to happen.
Real life scenarios tend to be more complex that theoretical ones, so the Stanford team even created some prototypes, and addressed complex scenarios. For example, an instance where thieves take stolen reversible tokens through multiple “mixers” designed to hide their identity.
What do crypto people think of this?
A few people welcomed this idea as a timely fix to a flaw in the design of the blockchain, while crypto purists believe the blockchain is already perfect. The major pushback is that any tweak will create a new set of risks such as the corruption or manipulation of judges.
What do you think?
