157 sats \ 4 replies \ @orthwyrm 10 May \ on: Re: "Bitcoin is money built on distrust." When is trust good and when is it bad? culture
the "good" forms of trust you allude to have a secondary function of building relationships in a community, which of course is valued as we are social animals.
i don't see how the logic can extend to an impersonal system such as bitcoin, especially as it's in competition with the equally impersonal fiat system. trust minimisation is simply good systems design in this case, and i reject harari's framing that bitcoin is unusual for having this attribute; the true anomaly is the trust required in the fiat system.
Social trust is good, in part, because it reduces transactions costs. When we trust other people aren't trying to screw us, we can interact much more informally and expend less effort on due diligence.
Bitcoin reduces the number of the ways people screw each other over, which actually makes trust easier.
reply
reply
I'm thinking about all the time we have to spend reading reviews and looking for possible red flags. That stuff is pure loss, compared to a deservedly high-trust setting where it's not necessary.
reply
Yes, I agree that "good" forms of trust looks a lot like relationships where there's mutual trust. If trust only flows in one direction, to banks or governments or whatever, that's probably the bad kind.
My fear is that a trust optional society might tend to have fewer relationships, less good trust, than a mandatory trust society.
reply