Author: Gregory Maxwell 2015-08-10 21:45:57
Published on: 2015-08-10T21:45:57+00:00
In a message sent to bitcoin-dev, Thomas Zander has explained that the belief Bitcoin's reason for existence is to avoid trusting anyone but oneself is incorrect and destructive. While the idea of a trustless system could be misunderstood as one with no trust at all, a trustless system is one where it is possible to trust everyone, even the untrustworthy. This is only possible if there is high confidence in faithful behaviour, even from malicious parties. Trust, in this sense, has multiple meanings, including an expectation of faithful behaviour and blind reliance. In a trustless system, users can trust everyone while mitigating the considerable costs and inequality created by maintaining trust relationships. A strongly decentralised system requires this approach because otherwise, trust requirements drive the environment towards natural monopolies. If one wants to layer trust-based things on top of a trust-mitigating framework, they can do so and enjoy efficiencies from doing so. However, doing the converse does not appear possible.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T21:30:37.608474+00:00