Bitcoin And Trust Are Equally Unavoidable
Why webs of trust may be unavoidable even in an optimally decentralized world.The first time I encountered the concept of a web of trust I was perusing the “Gnu Privacy Handbook” as any good privacy advocate would do. At the time that document was written in the late 1990s, PGP in email was a niche topic shared among security experts and enthusiasts, and while it is still widely used today, we normally expect end-to-end encryption to be taken care of for us. PGP, like Bitcoin, is made possible by public key cryptography. Initially, I assumed basic cryptography was enough to authenticate....
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In mining we trust. On the side of the US $1 bill it says "In God, we trust". Because money is all about trust. Trust that it's real, trust that it will remain at a similar value for the duration of the transaction at least, trust that the products are represented honestly. In the past trust that the paper was redeemable in gold, and more recently trust that our dollar will be backed by the "full faith and credit of the US Government". And when that trust is lacking society shuts down. To some extent, the crisis of 2008, in the same manner as the one in 1929 was about the lack of trust.....
Three weeks ago, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss announced the formation of a new trust, Bitcoin Water Trust. A trust whose aim is to bring drinkable water to people who do not have access to it. The Winklevoss twins announced the launch of the trust in Miami earlier this year. The unique model for the trust […]
I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States. -Ladar LevisonSecure email providers Lavabit and Silent Circle have taken the heroic steps of shutting down their businesses in order to preserve their integrity. Unfortunately the definition of heroism necessarily implies that their actions are heroic because they are unusual. Their actions surprised us because most companies, when faced between choosing between continued operation and honoring the trust their users have given them, toss integrity aside. Even though....
What do gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) have in common? On the surface, not a lot: the latter is a crypto movement focused around open access to financial primitives, while the former, incorporating both video gaming and iGaming, is concerned with entertainment. As it transpires, many of the characteristics that make blockchain suited to hosting DeFi applications – transparency; redundancy; trust minimization; verifiable proof – apply equally to gaming, for the purpose of proving that […]
Trust is a component in both gold currency and Bitcoin, although working in two fundamentally different ways. With gold, trust is almost always required, be it in mining, minting, or banking. On the other hand, with Bitcoin, mandatory trust only enters the equation with a centralized mining network. All other trust requirements with Bitcoin occur when an individual voluntarily gives a company or other person control over his or her coins. However, contrary to popular belief, Bitcoin’s trustless nature does not necessarily make it a winner over gold when it comes to trust. If Bitcoin mining....