As transformative an innovation as cryptocurrency is, people remain the primary users, and people require trust.
As established by Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin (BTC) whitepaper, the core of cryptocurrency is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that eliminates the need for intermediaries like banks.
Trust is paramount to daily life. We trust the opinion of doctors. We trust the taxi driver will take us where we need to go. We trust the food served to us at restaurants is safe to eat. We trust that cars will stop when the walk signal lights at a crosswalk.
In the trustless world of cryptocurrencies, we still make decisions about who and what we trust. Most of us are not developers or engineers capable of analyzing the code of every DeFi protocol and every token before we participate. Instead, we gather information and assess what action to take based on what we do understand. Key questions in this decision-making process are: Do we trust the organization and the people behind the protocol? Do we trust that they are acting in good faith and the protocol does what it says it does?
Studies have found that where we put our trust is evolving alongside the development of new technologies. Despite the novelty of algorithms deploying machine learning and artificial intelligence, people are increasingly putting their trust in algorithms.