W6.1 — Trust?

Timeline Mapping

After the feedback session, I still thought our brief was not settled. We were both unsure what our project aim was. In order to define these we have decided to rescope the blockchain technology by creating a diagram. Specifically, it was to carefully look for the area we both want to tackle. For this we started to plan out the map of blockchain technology in a timeline sequence. While mapping out the technology, I found the environmental issues around blockchain and the structure of the system very interesting. While digging out the information of environmental consequences, the energy consumption in mining pools, Co2 Emissions and Health problems, tackling this area seems to be a dead end to me. It reminded me of the conversation with Guy from Brixton Pound that the sustainability aspect of Blockchain Technology is improving as we speak, and the papers I have found seem to only mention the consensus mechanism, Proof of Work. The other area that interested me was the structure of the Blockchain System. I found an architecture model which consists of six different layers - application, contract, incentive, consensus, network and data layer. Inside those layers there were numerous attributes that are completely invisible to the people who use Blockchain Technology. The only layer that is apparent to the people is the application layer, the very top layer which is the websites and interfaces people interact with. All the rest layers are hiding below this layer operating invisibly. Then it made me question, how can or does people trust the Blockchain Technology when it operates in the dark? If people are trusting the technology, what are they trusting?

Fig 1. Blockchain Timeline and Architectural Structure. Image by Sue.

Fig 2. Blockchain Timeline. Image by David.

Trust or Confidence Machine?

Fig 3. Brief Discussion. Image by Sue.

To dive into this question, I started to re-visit the reading David has found called, Blockchain as a confidence machine: The problem of trust challenges of governance by Filippi, P, Manna, M and Reijers, W. The paper discusses the difference between trust and confidence in Blockchain Technology, specifically, the elimination of trust claiming Blockchain as ‘trustless trust’ and how it brings in Confidence to people due to high level of predictability.
As the technology is decentralised from the government and the codes took over the role, distributing the datas to individuals, we might say the people who use this technology have trust in mathematics and algorithms. However, the reality of this technology is that its not only mathematical codes but also there are a variety of human actors in the system to be operated.

“If people have the ability to correctly analyse the functioning of a technology and predict its operation and potentially gain experience in seeing it in operation they will no longer need to TRUST the technology because they have now gained CONFIDENCE in the way it operates.”

From this reading, I wanted to explore the visualisation of the hidden layers / structures of the Blockchain System as they are not apparent to the users and let them rethink whether they would trust this technology.

After a long discussion with David, we have finally updated and decided on our brief : Materialise the obscurity and complexity of the Blockchain System. Questioning what the Trust is, and raising discussions for people to reflect and decide.

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Bibliography

Whitaker, A. (2019) Art and Blockchain: A Primer, History, and Taxonomy of Blockchain Use Cases in the Arts, Artivate, 8(2). pp. 21-46. Access: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.34053/artivate.8.2.2

Filippi, P, Manna, M and Reijers, W. (2020) 'Blockchain as a confidence machine: The problem of trust and challenges of governance', Technology in Society, 62, pp. 1 - 14. doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101284

Nakamoto, S. (2008) ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’. Available at:https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (Accessed: 25th October 2021).

Zheng, Z. et al. (2017) ‘An Overview of Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Consensus, and Future Trends’ BigData Congress, Honolulu, 25 - 30 June 2017. Available at:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8029379 (Accessed: 25 October 2021).