In 2025, Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin published a longform piece, “The importance of full-stack openness and verifiability.” In it, he wrote, “Verification is not something reserved to proprietary rubber-stamp auditors that may well be colluding with the companies and governments rolling out the technology - it's a right, and a socially encouraged hobby, for the people.” The importance of full-stack openness and verifiability The importance of full-stack openness and verifiability I couldn’t agree more. As crypto, AI, and finance blend, every critical operation needs to be reproducible and provably secure. Credibly neutral systems cannot rely on trust. They need independent verification to scale without turning any provider into a point of failure. Many developers still think strong security practices alone make verifiability unnecessary. To show why that’s not the case, I’ll explain what verifiability is and then highlight twelve useful cloud-native applications for both web3 and general purpose use-cases. What is Verifiability? At its core, verifiability means that anyone should have the ability to reproduce, audit, and cryptographically verify high-trust systems, down to the execution of exact lines of code. True verifiability requires external validation, where third parties can independently verify the integrity of workloads, from kernel to dependencies. Developers can produce strong, verifiable security guarantees through: Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs): Hardware-isolated enclaves that protect your code and data from outside access.
End-to-end reproducibility: Ensuring that your code runs deterministically, making it auditable and predictable.
Remote attestation: Letting users verify the exact code and environment executing their sensitive operations. Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs): Hardware-isolated enclaves that protect your code and data from outside access. End-to-end reproducibility: Ensuring that your code runs deterministically, making it auditable and predictable. Remote attestation: Letting users verify the exact code and environment executing their sensitive operations. 12 Verifiability Use Cases In 2026 and beyond, we hope to see many more cloud-native apps running critical operations like transaction processing, compliance workflows, and sensitive state management in a fully verifiable and provably secure environment. For developers considering the use cases and benefits of verifiability, the table below includes a range of examples of sensitive workloads that could benefit from moving to verifiable environments: fully verifiable and provably secure environment Critical software

Advantages to verifiability



AI Inference

Prevent “Wizard-of-Oz” AI by proving outputs come from the actual model.



Chain abstraction

Confirm cosigners are trustworthy for cross-chain wallets and resource locks (e.g. OneBalance).



Transaction construction

Ensure users know that the unsigned transaction constructed is legitimate.



Transaction parsing

Provide accurate metadata about the effects of a transaction. This is critical for trusted wallet UX.



Oracles (data fetching)

Leverage external data without the overhead of full decentralization, onchain or off-chain. Replace economic incentives with verifiability.



Blockchain nodes

Allow for private balance lookups, verifiable mempool inclusion, and more.



Blockchain L2 sequencers

Prove correct behavior and eliminate the need for challenge periods and economic incentives around them.



Identity verification

Prove no identity is leaked as part of the verification process.



VPN nodes

Guarantee privacy by proving that forwarded traffic isn't logged anywhere.



Exchanges

Ensure no malicious behavior (frontrunning), and create verifiable order books.



Web2 data bridges

Prove the state of web2 (exchange balance, credit scores, X follower count) in web3.



PII Processing

Prove that processing does not leak or misuse PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Critical software

Advantages to verifiability



AI Inference

Prevent “Wizard-of-Oz” AI by proving outputs come from the actual model.



Chain abstraction

Confirm cosigners are trustworthy for cross-chain wallets and resource locks (e.g. OneBalance).



Transaction construction

Ensure users know that the unsigned transaction constructed is legitimate.



Transaction parsing

Provide accurate metadata about the effects of a transaction. This is critical for trusted wallet UX.



Oracles (data fetching)

Leverage external data without the overhead of full decentralization, onchain or off-chain. Replace economic incentives with verifiability.



Blockchain nodes

Allow for private balance lookups, verifiable mempool inclusion, and more.



Blockchain L2 sequencers

Prove correct behavior and eliminate the need for challenge periods and economic incentives around them.



Identity verification

Prove no identity is leaked as part of the verification process.



VPN nodes

Guarantee privacy by proving that forwarded traffic isn't logged anywhere.



Exchanges

Ensure no malicious behavior (frontrunning), and create verifiable order books.



Web2 data bridges

Prove the state of web2 (exchange balance, credit scores, X follower count) in web3.



PII Processing

Prove that processing does not leak or misuse PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Critical software

Advantages to verifiability Critical software Critical software Critical software Advantages to verifiability Advantages to verifiability Advantages to verifiability AI Inference

Prevent “Wizard-of-Oz” AI by proving outputs come from the actual model. AI Inference AI Inference Prevent “Wizard-of-Oz” AI by proving outputs come from the actual model. Prevent “Wizard-of-Oz” AI by proving outputs come from the actual model. Wizard-of-Oz Wizard-of-Oz Chain abstraction

Confirm cosigners are trustworthy for cross-chain wallets and resource locks (e.g. OneBalance). Chain abstraction Chain abstraction Confirm cosigners are trustworthy for cross-chain wallets and resource locks (e.g. OneBalance). Confirm cosigners are trustworthy for cross-chain wallets and resource locks (e.g. OneBalance). OneBalance OneBalance Transaction construction

Ensure users know that the unsigned transaction constructed is legitimate. Transaction construction Transaction construction Ensure users know that the unsigned transaction constructed is legitimate. Ensure users know that the unsigned transaction constructed is legitimate. Transaction parsing

Provide accurate metadata about the effects of a transaction. This is critical for trusted wallet UX. Transaction parsing Transaction parsing Provide accurate metadata about the effects of a transaction. This is critical for trusted wallet UX. Provide accurate metadata about the effects of a transaction. This is critical for trusted wallet UX. Oracles (data fetching)

Leverage external data without the overhead of full decentralization, onchain or off-chain. Replace economic incentives with verifiability. Oracles (data fetching) Oracles (data fetching) Leverage external data without the overhead of full decentralization, onchain or off-chain. Replace economic incentives with verifiability. Leverage external data without the overhead of full decentralization, onchain or off-chain. Replace economic incentives with verifiability. Blockchain nodes

Allow for private balance lookups, verifiable mempool inclusion, and more. Blockchain nodes Blockchain nodes Allow for private balance lookups, verifiable mempool inclusion, and more. Allow for private balance lookups, verifiable mempool inclusion, and more. Blockchain L2 sequencers

Prove correct behavior and eliminate the need for challenge periods and economic incentives around them. Blockchain L2 sequencers Blockchain L2 sequencers Prove correct behavior and eliminate the need for challenge periods and economic incentives around them. Prove correct behavior and eliminate the need for challenge periods and economic incentives around them. Identity verification

Prove no identity is leaked as part of the verification process. Identity verification Identity verification Prove no identity is leaked as part of the verification process. Prove no identity is leaked as part of the verification process. VPN nodes

Guarantee privacy by proving that forwarded traffic isn't logged anywhere. VPN nodes VPN nodes Guarantee privacy by proving that forwarded traffic isn't logged anywhere. Guarantee privacy by proving that forwarded traffic isn't logged anywhere. Exchanges

Ensure no malicious behavior (frontrunning), and create verifiable order books. Exchanges Exchanges Ensure no malicious behavior (frontrunning), and create verifiable order books. Ensure no malicious behavior (frontrunning), and create verifiable order books. Web2 data bridges

Prove the state of web2 (exchange balance, credit scores, X follower count) in web3. Web2 data bridges Web2 data bridges Prove the state of web2 (exchange balance, credit scores, X follower count) in web3. Prove the state of web2 (exchange balance, credit scores, X follower count) in web3. PII Processing

Prove that processing does not leak or misuse PII (Personally Identifiable Information). PII Processing PII Processing Prove that processing does not leak or misuse PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Prove that processing does not leak or misuse PII (Personally Identifiable Information). As our dependence on digital systems accelerates, the danger of not building for verifiability becomes harder to ignore. Every year, more of our choices (financial transactions, medical decisions, identity checks, AI-generated answers) are intermediated by software we cannot see and cannot audit. In a world where truth is increasingly delivered through APIs, unverifiable infrastructure becomes an attractive target: a place where mistakes hide, attackers thrive, and trust collapses all at once. Vitalik’s post warned that opaque systems don’t just create technical risk; they corrode social trust. When users have no independent way to confirm how their data, transactions, or AI outputs are being handled, they’re forced to rely on reputation and marketing instead of facts. That model might limp along for a while, but it breaks the moment a major provider fails, or worse, is compromised. Verifiability isn’t idealism. It’s the only durable checkpoint we have left. The future belongs to systems that can prove their integrity, not merely claim it. Developers who adopt verifiable execution now will define the next generation of trustworthy internet infrastructure. Those who don’t will find their applications increasingly unfit for a world that finally expects receipts.

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

Why Verifiability Matters for Security: 12 Key Cloud Application Use Cases

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

(1/100) Crypto Countdown: Golem

A Research Report on the Trader $JOE DeFi Platform

07/03/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

05/02/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

01/06/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

06/04/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

(1/100) Crypto Countdown: Golem

A Research Report on the Trader $JOE DeFi Platform

07/03/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

05/02/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

01/06/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

06/04/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Minty

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps