Trust Beyond Computation Alone: Human Aspects of Trust in Blockchain Technologies

Abstract

Blockchains-with their inherent properties of transaction transparency, distributed consensus, immutability and cryptographic verifiability-are increasingly seen as a means to underpin innovative products and services in a range of sectors from finance through to energy and healthcare. Discussions, too often, make assertions that the trustless nature of blockchain technologies enables and actively promotes their suitability-there being no need to trust third parties or centralised control. Yet humans need to be able to trust systems, and others with whom the system enables transactions. In this paper, we highlight that understanding this need for trust is critical for the development of blockchain-based systems. Through an online study with 125 users of the most wellknown of blockchain based systems-the cryptocurrency Bitcoin-we uncover that human and institutional aspects of trust are pervasive. Our analysis highlights that, when designing future blockchain-based technologies, we ought to not only consider computational trust but also the wider ecosystem , how trust plays a part in users engaging/disengaging with such ecosystems and where design choices impact upon trust. From this, we distill a set of guidelines for software engineers developing blockchainbased systems for societal applications.

Ideology in Open Source Development

“…Researchers have studied the perception of inclusiveness [41], investigated the impacts of gender bias/diversity [42], [43], and explored possible causes [44] and solutions to improve the status quo [45]. Besides, some other aspects of team and community are also explored, such as coordination [46], transparency [47], trust [48]. Regarding the papers focusing on artifacts, they basically cover every phase in software development, such as requirement and testing, and intend to improve the development practice or embed some values in the artifacts generated in these phases.…”

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency in Human Computer Interaction: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

“…Several HCI publications address trust and the trustworthiness of blockchain and cryptocurrency systems. This strand of research particularly challenges the assumption that blockchains are trustless and argues to adopt a sociotechnical perspective [25,26,53,76,82,84,116] as trust in algorithms cannot entirely substitute trust in humans [85]. Investigating the role of trust and how to design trustworthy systems is viewed as particularly important to understand the adoption or non-adoption by users [26,131].…”

“…Looking at social trust, Heidt identify trust in code, in data, in a project's vision, and systemic trust in the interplay between these factors to be relevant for design [53]. Craggs et al emphasize the role of interpersonal trust in cryptocurrency communities, particularly interpersonal trust in other users and interpersonal trust in the maintainer of the network [26]. Additionally, several papers report the negative efect of illicit activities [115,131] on trust in cryptocurrency systems.…”

Software Engineering Applications Enabled by Blockchain Technology: A Systematic Mapping Study

“…This implies no control of the work done but transparency, communication, accountability and collective responsibility [14]. On the other hand, researchers point out that blockchain is trustless [64], which means that there is no need to trust participants, as the system is secure even in the presence of Byzantine participants. In other words, blockchain could enable collective trust on the basis of mutual distrust, the so-called trustless trust [65].…”