Similarities and Learnings from Ancient Literature on Blockchain Consensus and Integrity
Ashish Kundu, Arun Ayachitula, Nagamani Sistla · 2021
In this paper11This work was carried out when Ashish Kundu was working at IBM T J Watson Research Center, New York., we have studied how the integrity of the text of an ancient literature has been preserved for several centuries. Specifically, the Vedas is an ancient literature, which has its text remained preserved without any corruption for thousands of years. As we studied the system that protects the integrity of the text, pronunciation and semantics of the Vedas, we discovered a number of similarities it has with the current concept of blockchain technology. It is surprising that the notion of de-centralized trust and mathematical encodings have existed since thousands of years in order to protect this work of literature. We have presented our findings and analysis of the similarities. There are also certain technical mechanisms that The Vedic integrity system uses, which can be used to enhance the current digital blockchain platforms in terms of its security and robustness.