What attestation means in a decentralised system and why “many participants vouch for this” is a cornerstone of trust.
An attestation is a verifiable statement, backed by many independent participants, that something is true. It is the underlying idea that makes decentralised data delivery trustworthy.
On the Flare networks, attestation is what lets applications rely on outside information without trusting any single source.
A statement from one party is only as trustworthy as that party. A statement independently confirmed by many parties is far harder to fake, because an attacker would need to corrupt a large share of them at once. This shift — from one voucher to many — is the heart of decentralised trust.
Both the FTSO and the FDC rest on this attestation principle.
If one stranger tells you a bridge is safe, you might hesitate. If a hundred independent engineers each inspect it and agree it is safe, you would feel far more confident. Attestation formalises that intuition.
This article is part of the Flare Portal wiki — a free, independent educational reference. It is a conceptual overview and not a substitute for primary technical documentation.