Trust No One. Verify Everything: Bitcoin

• Main Authors: Humayun, Mariam, Belk, Russell
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blockchain; Digital currencies; Trust
• ISSN: 0098-9258

Alongside money, trust is inevitably an important part of society's existence. The system works because we trust it to work. And yet, so much our lives are lived in constant dis-trust such as fear of others at airports, the lack of trust that leads to police brutality, or the existence of borders that solidify fear. To state that consumer trust has been shaken in recent years would be an understatement. From the financial crisis of 2008, the Edward Snowden NSA leaks of 2013, the 2016 US elections, the Panama Papers, to the branding scandals of Volkswagen, Equifax, and Theranos, and most recently the data leaks at Facebook: distrust is the order of the day. We now even accept the oxymoron "fake news". Trust is increasingly negated by dis-trust. While a healthy skepticism of large corporations has been a continuous narrative (Holt 2002, Klein 2010, Kozinets and Handelman 2004, Darke and Ritchie 2007), social media and technology have fundamentally changed the way we now trust others. Technology has fuelled the growth of collaborative consumption with the rise of sharing and pseudo-sharing online which are based on trusting previously unknown others (Belk 2010, 2014, Scaraboto 2015, Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012, John 2017) including living in strangers' Airbnb homes or riding in strangers' Uber cars (Botsman 2017). We know that brands often go to great lengths to inspire trust and legitimacy through their hard-earned reputations (Humphreys and Thompson 2014, Lowry et al. 2008, Giesler 2012). However, we know a lot less about how consumers trust an entity that makes no attempt at being trustworthy. What if the need for trust was eradicated from the picture altogether? In this paper, we analyze the notions of trust and deeper distrust that have fueled the Bitcoin/Blockchain ecosystem. The peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, came into being in 2008 as a white paper posted on an inconspicuous mailing list. Despite its "In God We Trust" slogan, the US Dollar demands trust in the US government to warrant its promises. But, Bitcoin demands trust in algorithms and the purity of code which are linked to the Cypherpunk Manifesto: "In Code We Trust". Bitcoin's existence involves major trust issues. By all standards, it should not exist the way it does today. In the early years, many dismissed it as a folly, yet after almost 10 years, it has surprised and baffled many. Bitcoin's creator still remains anonymous, although there have been various false prophets claiming to be