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      "body": "Congratulations @ancaputopist91! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@ancaputopist91/birthday1.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@ancaputopist91) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](http://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=ancaputopist91)_</sub>\n\n\n**Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:**\n<table><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/the-steem-blockchain-survived-its-first-virus-plague\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/https://steemitimages.com/0x0/![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYKnawrtqFCShyVvVs4QS7548eretcMUKQJc3D2f69pb9/image.png)\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/the-steem-blockchain-survived-its-first-virus-plague\">The Steem blockchain survived its first virus plague!</a></td></tr></table>\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "This is going to be my personal take on a recent [blog post]((https://medium.com/@kaistinchcombe/decentralized-and-trustless-crypto-paradise-is-actually-a-medieval-hellhole-c1ca122efdec)) by crypto-skeptic Kai Stinchcombe. Stinchcombe  argues that Blockchain technologies are a bad vision for the future since, in his view,  decentralized consensus is completely useless to any real-world application; actually it is detrimental, because, in his own words,\n> systems built on trust, norms, and institutions inherently function better than the type of no-need-for-trusted-parties systems blockchain envisions.\n\nI found the post to contain some valid critiques, but to be ultimately misguided. Before jumping into it,  let us quickly remind ourselves what this is all about. Readers already familiar with the topic can jump directly to the second section.\n\n### The Blockchain explainer\nA blockchain is a kind of _data-structure_, a way of organizing and storing data. The innovative idea behind the blockchain is its simultaneous use of cryptography, to make the data tamper-resistant, and a clever incentive mechanism, to add new records to the blockchain with no need of a central trusted authority. \n\nConcretely, a blockchain is a sequence of records, or _blocks_, each one linked to the previous one, in a linear fashion. Each block can contain new information and can refer to information in previous blocks. It is important that the blockchain is not uniquely stored in one place. Every node of a P2P network keeps its own version of the blockchain, that then broadcasts to the other nodes. At any given time, the longest version of the blockchain is considered the \"true\" blockchain. \n\nBlocks are added to the blockchain by staging a competition among different parties, or _miners_, where each one has to solve, by trial and error, a hard mathematical task, that depends on information contained in the new block. The first miner to solve the puzzle, gets a reward, so there is an incentive mechanism for miners to participate in the competition and extend the blockchain. Moreover, there is also an incentive to include in the new block, not just any random  information decided by the miner, but some of the unconfirmed transactions between nodes. This is because each transaction promises a small reward to the miners. In other words, two nodes engage in a transaction and broadcast it to the network, while at the same time promising a small reward to the miner that can include the transaction in a new block, so that it is in the interest of the miners to include as many unconfirmed transactions. \n\nThe way the transactions are stored in a block makes a clever use of cryptography, so that it becomes impossible for a node to spend money that belongs to another node. Moreover, since each block is connected to the previous one, any attempt by a miner to change a past block actually requires to modify also all subsequent blocks, which in turn requires to solve their corresponding puzzles. Since each puzzle is very hard, it is unlikely a single miner will manage to recreate on its own a blockchain as long as the \"true\" one. If instead of tampering with a past block, a malevolent miner tampers just with the last block, there is an incentive mechanism for the other miners to ignore the \"wrong\" block, which incidentally also invalidates any reward received by the malevolent miner. This is because most miners are not malevolent and they want to play by the rules so that they can be sure of their rewards.   \n\nThis is more or less how the blockchain was applied to create the first digital cryptocurrency,  Bitcoin. However, the blockchain is a more general paradigm that, in principle, can be applied in many contexts - not only to digital currencies. True believers claim it will change absolutely everything. At its essence, a blockchain is a distributed ledger of records, each one containing some certified data, in such way that everybody can read, everybody is free to contribute to add new data to it, nobody can get away with writing \"wrong\" information in a new record against the majority of the participants, and nobody can modify a past record.\n\n## Critique 1: Blockchain unnecessary\nStinchcombe argues that in many cases there is no need of a trustless consensus mechanism in the storing of data, and I agree with him. Some attempts to apply the blockchain outside of the context of cryptocurrencies look quite unnatural. For example, [Walmart](https://cointelegraph.com/news/walmart-to-implement-blockchain-based-delivery-system) is ready to employ Blockchain-based tools to track contents, environmental conditions and location of its packages. But where is the need here for a decentralized mechanism to achieve consensus? The clever bit of the blockchain is almost exclusively in its social engineering aspects, where many parties must reach together an agreement, even if some of them might be malevolent. All the cryptographic aspects are also functional to this aim. One can only wonder why Walmart would think necessary to use the blockchain for its purposes. Unless, its choice is motivated by the desire to ride the hype train. \n\n## Critique 2: trusted autorithy necessary\nStinchcombe also argues that, not only there is no need for decentralization, but actually it is better to have a trusted middleman. I disagree on this point. \n\nConsider, together with Stinchcombe, buying and selling digital products via a blockchain-based platform. The current alternative is to have a central authority, like eBay, that puts buyers and sellers into contact, allows sellers to advertize themselves to a large audience and provides arbitration. But of course eBay must take a fee out of every sale to make its business profitable. Basically no fee would be required, instead, in a blockchain-based scenario (except for a small fee to miners). Moreover, arbitration would be provided by smart contracts. \n\nThis Stinchcombe does not like. His argument is that you are just replacing trust in a middleman with trust in a piece of software. Right. I perfectly agree that it is fundamentally impossible to have a completely trustless system. But I would also argue that the second possibility requires less trust, and the least trust the better. Clearly, a user cannot check every single line of code involved in smart contract. But the important point is that, _in principle_, he, or someone else, could. Moreover, as he sees other users using smart contracts with no personal harm, he begins to trust the platform, through the same social mechanisms that today make someone trust eBay. Finally, once he engages in a smart contract, he is sure his rights are no longer exposed to the whims of another human being, but are protected by deterministic software. \n\n\n## Final thoughts: cryptos as a new protection of individual liberties\n\nMuch of history can be seen as a fight for individual liberties against unjust authority. Stinchcombe claims a blockchain-dominated world would be similar to the Middle Ages: \n\n>  Eight hundred years ago in Europe — with weak governments unable to enforce laws and trusted counterparties few, fragile and far between — theft was rampant, safe banking was a fantasy, and personal security was at the point of the sword. This is what Somalia looks like now, and also, what it looks like to transact on the blockchain in the ideal scenario.\n\nI believe the exact opposite is true. In the Middle Ages, there were few protections to personal liberties, not because the central authority was weak, but because it was far too strong. Most people were serfs, forced to cultivate the land of few feudal landlords. The feudal landlords allied themselves with the political and religious authorities of the time, the Crown and the Church, to grant themselves a monopoly over the land. There was basically no check on their power to tax, conscript, or dispense arbitrary privileges. Gradually, more freedoms were won. In the modern era, came the English, the French and, especially, the American Revolution. Their legacy was to empower the individual and put constraints on any central authority. The result is the democratic system we have inherited today.\n\nUnfortunately, during the last century, the system has been moving again in the direction opposite to individual liberties. Arguably, this is most evident in the context of monetary policies, where governments have tightened their control and abused their power, for their own interests. Papermoney, and then repudiating the gold standard, have served very well the aims of politicians. Inflation has allowed them to increase enormously the public debt, to satisfy the desires of the masses (and win their political support), while at the same time constantly devaluing (or [completely destroying](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation)) the purchasing power of the individual. The alliance between Big Government and Big Business has created again a medieval threat to personal liberties. I see cryptocurrencies as the new weapon of the people, that may allow them once again to prevent the accumulation of too great a power in too few hands.",
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