Philosophy Colloquium - “Trust, ‘Trustless’ Transactions, and the Blockchain”
Philosophy Colloquium
Event
When: Friday March 23rd, 3:30 pm
Where: ESB 103
William Buschert
(Department of Philosophy, University of Saskatchewan)
Abstract:
Blockchain technologies (including cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum) are, by design, very secure and highly resistant to tampering, but do not depend on any central authority to keep them that way. In fact, blockchains are commonly described by enthusiasts as “trustless.” Yet this raises an at least modestly interesting philosophical question: What does it mean to trust a technology? In this talk I argue that technologies like the blockchain can properly be characterized as “trustless,” but also that there is a sense which this true of (nearly) all technologies.