TRUSTING A TRUSTLESS NETWORK. The Paradoxes of Trust in Blockchain Technology

Crypto has one feature that has never existed before - trust. - Ben Horowitz

The media keeps referring to cryptocurrencies, even when talking of non-currency tokens, while reducing the underlying blockchain networks to objects of speculation, instead of focusing on the fact that they provide - first and foremost - a promising governance infrastructure that could resolve many problems of the Internet we use today, such as: (... See more

If trust is the key blockchain enabler, banks already trust one another, so why do we need a “trust network”? The answer lies in the fact that when we examine the cost of running the current trust system, we will find these costs have become excessive. This is in part due to regulations, and in part due to the required complex integrations between

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The modern financial system is a market for promises that involve large degree of trust. Human systems are incapable of executing all promises due to interests and goals that could go against them. The inability to commit to promise enforcement limits the set of promises that can be made. And this is the fundamental problem that blockchain as an al... See more

The consequences of the existence of blockchains are thus that, for the first time in human history, we have a real alternative to governments and legal systems for the enforcement of promises. What are the effects this will have on the world?