Re:There's No Good Reason to Trust Blockchain Technology (2019)
by edoloughlin on Monday August 17, 2020 @09:23AM
(#24186959)
Bruce's take can be summarized like this: with a blockchain, you're choosing to trust code and cryptography instead of a person
It can't be summarised like that. He explicitly says: "Any evaluation of the security of the system has to take the whole socio-technical system into account".
His issues revolve around the fact that blockchain ecosystems have become centralised: "Just about everyone using bitcoin has to trust one of the few available wallets and use one of the few available exchanges. People have to trust the software and the operating systems and the computers everything is running on. And we've seen attacks against wallets and exchanges. We’ve seen Trojans and phishing and password guessing. Criminals have even used flaws in the system that people use to repair their cell phones to steal bitcoin".
It can't be summarised like that. He explicitly says: "Any evaluation of the security of the system has to take the whole socio-technical system into account".
His issues revolve around the fact that blockchain ecosystems have become centralised: "Just about everyone using bitcoin has to trust one of the few available wallets and use one of the few available exchanges. People have to trust the software and the operating systems and the computers everything is running on. And we've seen attacks against wallets and exchanges. We’ve seen Trojans and phishing and password guessing. Criminals have even used flaws in the system that people use to repair their cell phones to steal bitcoin".