The Procter & Gamble Company
The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust
Book

The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust

Kevin Werbach
MIT Press, 2018

Read, Listen, or Discuss

Amazon Kindle  Discuss
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

8

getAbstract Rating

  • Eye Opening
  • Overview
  • Background

Recommendation

Ask a sample of CEOs and government officials about innovation, and invariably the topic of blockchain will come up. The technology is already at work in health care, finance, supply chain management and more, but professor Kevin Werbach assesses the landscape and future of blockchain from the perspective of its governance. He examines how stakeholders are advancing the technology amid calls by many to police it. Officials, executives and business owners will find this a broad look at a pioneering development in commerce and society.

Summary

Blockchain is redefining the concept of trust in social, financial and governmental interactions.

In 2009, someone working under the alias of Satoshi Nakamoto introduced bitcoin as a new payment and transaction network based on the novel concept of a blockchain. But the roots of the idea of a distributed ledger reach far back into the earliest days of the New York Stock Exchange, when 24 traders gathered under the branches of a Manhattan buttonwood tree in 1792. Their agreement on how to trade stocks and bonds relied on a core element crucial to doing business in a public marketplace: the trust among individuals.

The idea of the distributed ledger centers on a decentralized platform that allows users to transact, record and process information without interference from other parties and free from a centralized governing authority. The distributed ledger platform couldn’t exist without stakeholders believing in its efficacy, reliability, accuracy and immutability. The technology of blockchain touches on a range of  disciplines, including computer science, ...

About the Author

Kevin Werbach is a professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Comment on this summary

  • Avatar
    Sign in to share your opinion
  • Avatar
    L. L. 4 years ago
    Few open questions after reading this. 1) Is coexistence of decentralization and governance still possible yet to be resolved? 2) How can a blockchain assess if a transaction is legal or illegal without losing its decentralization attribute? 3) Is blockchain trust based on faith in the system or in fact based on trust in individuals who assessed the mathematical proofs of cryptographic and hashing algorithms used for blockchain consensus reliability, integrity, and security?