Blockchain technology is an interesting way of building distributed ledgers. However, they cannot provide TRUST, because trust is not based on technology.

Trust develops in the context of application, in the cultural context, and is not least a generational issue. The core elements of trust, namely security, liability and responsibility, are not technology-related. In this respect, the definition of trust is unlikely to change. Even the best-intentioned technology has no influence on this. We have seen this with digital signatures and encryption methods, which are still only marginally used today. Systems, such as blockchains, can be implemented in different ways and ultimately the implementation decides the question: how trustworthy is this system? Because one thing is certain: errors will occur and then the question arises as to who is responsible.

Bruce Schneier has recently published an article “Illegal Content and the Blockchain” on trust, in addition I did the same in 2016 (article in german), when blockchain technologies started to emerge in larger scale.

“But information must reside somewhere. Code is written by and for people, stored on computers located within countries, and embedded within the institutions and societies we have created. To trust information is to trust its chain of custody and the social context it comes from. Neither code nor information is value-neutral, nor ever free of human context.”  Bruce Schneier