Turing-complete [English]

InterPARES Definition

No definition in earlier IP projects. ITrust definition not yet developed.

Other Definitions

  • BlockchainHub Glossary (†807 s.v. "Turing completeness" ): A machine is Turing complete if it can perform any calculation that any other programmable computer is capable of. All modern computers are Turing-complete in this sense. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) which runs on the Ethereum blockchain is Turing complete. Thus it can process any “computable function”. It is, in short, able to do what you could do with any conventional computer and programming language.

Citations

  • 5chdn, 2016. (†811 ): Turing-completeness therefore refers to any device or system which in theory can calculate everything assuming enough memory is available. And since software is just programmed, and programming is just chaining mathematic statements, everything can be implemented in a turing complete environment. · The Ethereum blockchain is basically a distributed turing machine. (†2069)
  • Buterin [2017] (†818 ): What Ethereum intends to provide is a blockchain with a built-in fully fledged Turing-complete programming language that can be used to create "contracts" that can be used to encode arbitrary state transition functions, allowing users to create any of the systems described above, as well as many others that we have not yet imagined, simply by writing up the logic in a few lines of code. (†2118)
  • Pangburn 2015 (†826 para.5): Bitcoin as a whole is a step in that direction, but it’s only one application. Ethereum, on the other hand, is “Turing complete,” a system in which a program can be written to find an answer—or to execute a smart contract that can buy something, sell something, or do something. In aggregate, a group of smart contracts could run what is known in Ethereum-speak as a “decentralized autonomous organization” (DAO) or a “distributed autonomous corporation” (DAC)—in other words, a corporation distilled to its most basic tasks, and operated by little more than code and the logic of if this, then that. (†2159)