This paper proposes a novel way to understand trust in blockchain technology by analogy with trust placed in institutions. In support of the analysis, a detailed investigation of institutional trust is provided, which is then used as the basis for understanding the nature and ethical limits of blockchain trust. Two interrelated arguments are presented. First, given blockchains’ capacity for being institution-like entities by inviting expectations similar to those invited by traditional institutions, blockchain trust is argued to be best conceptualized as a specialized form of trust in institutions. Keeping only the core functionality and certain normative ideas of institutions, this technology broadens our understanding of trust by removing the need for third parties while retaining the value of trust for the trustor. Second, the paper argues that blockchains’ decentralized nature and the implications and effects of this decentralization on trust issues are double-edged. With the erasure of central points, the systems simultaneously crowd out the pivotal role played by traditional institutions and a cadre of representatives in meeting their assigned obligations and securing the functional systems’ trustworthy performances. As such, blockchain is positioned as a technology containing both disruptive features that can be embedded with meaningful normative values and inherent ethical limits that pose a direct challenge to the actual trustworthiness of blockchain implementations. Such limits are proposed to be ameliorated by facilitating a shift of responsibility to the groups of people directly associated with the engendering of trust in the blockchain context.

本文提出了一种新颖的方式，通过类比机构中的信任来理解对区块链技术的信任。为了支持该分析，提供了对机构信任的详细调查，然后将其用作了解区块链信任的性质和道德限制的基础。提出了两个相互关联的论点。首先，鉴于区块链通过邀请类似于传统机构邀请的期望而成为类似机构的实体的能力，最好将区块链信任概念化为机构中的一种特殊形式的信任。该技术仅保留机构的核心功能和某些规范性思想，通过消除对第三方的需求，同时保留了对委托人的信任价值，拓宽了我们对信任的理解。第二，该论文认为，区块链的去中心化性质以及这种去中心化对信任问题的影响和影响是双重边缘的。随着中心点的删除，这些系统同时排挤了传统机构和代表干部在履行其分配的职责并确保功能系统的可信赖性能方面所起的关键作用。因此，区块链被定位为一种技术，它既包含可以嵌入有意义的规范值的破坏性功能，又包含固有的道德限制，这对区块链实施的实际可信赖性构成直接挑战。提议通过促进将责任转移到与在区块链环境中产生信任直接相关的人群来改善这种限制。