num_pages: 344
description: How the blockchaina system built on foundations of mutual mistrustcan become trustworthy.The blockchain entered the world on January 3 2009 introducing an innovative new trust architecture: an environment in which users trust a systemfor example a shared ledger of informationwithout necessarily trusting any of its components. The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is the most famous implementation of the blockchain but hundreds of other companies have been founded and billions of dollars invested in similar applications since Bitcoin's launch. Some see the blockchain as offering more opportunities for criminal behavior than benefits to society. In this book Kevin Werbach shows how a technology resting on foundations of mutual mistrust can become trustworthy.The blockchain built on open software and decentralized foundations that allow anyone to participate seems like a threat to any form of regulation. In fact Werbach argues law and the blockchain need each other. Blockchain systems that ignore law and governance are likely to fail or to become outlaw technologies irrelevant to the mainstream economy. That Werbach cautions would be a tragic waste of potential. If however we recognize the blockchain as a kind of legal technology that shapes behavior in new ways it can be harnessed to create tremendous business and social value.
language: English
title: The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust
publisher: The MIT Press