https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/perils-trustless-systems/2017/02/18 Researching, documenting and promoting peer to peer practices Mon, 14 Aug 2017 16:05:19 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.15 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/perils-trustless-systems/2017/02/18/comment-page-1#comment-1579012 Mon, 14 Aug 2017 16:05:19 +0000 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=63821#comment-1579012 EJ Spode has offered something really exciting regarding trust, who we trust and why? I cant find EJ Spode and would love to be able to if anyone can help!

]]> https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/perils-trustless-systems/2017/02/18/comment-page-1#comment-1578313 Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:29:26 +0000 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=63821#comment-1578313 I very much appreciated this screed as a reframing of the conversation about trust, and particularly the brutal truth: “we can’t escape the need to rely on other people.” I hope that the broader conversation can continue in a more nuanced direction than in the past. What are the strengths and weaknesses of older trust models vs new proposals? E.g., the financial system today is built on national legal systems and nation state threats of violence. Blockchain trust is built on computer science and engineering. Each, as described, dependent on people with access to and knowledge of the levers. The internet system today uses trust systems such as DNS, ICANN and CA’s that largely fall back on the national trust model, much as global trade works through national customs, trade agreements and financial links. Most obviously, the blockchain runs orthogonal to these mature and sophisticated existing trust systems. It is appealing to educated engineers who are close to the levers of power in this new distributed model. It is appealing to grey and black market participants who have been excluded from the regularized economy. It is appealing to citizens of failed states for whom the standard trust model is failing. But, it is indubitably immature and unsophisticated. One way it can grow is through the engineering of trust building blocks. Millions of people execute credit card transactions each day, depending on written agreements which they do not understand or read, but which represent the accumulated wisdom of centuries of financial/legal experience. The work being done now in areas such as deterministic builds, zero knowledge proofs, source code verification may one day lead to trust edifices built in the cybersphere which no longer require users to be PhDs or helpless plebes; just as today one need not be a JD in order to engage in commerce.

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