Trust and reliance in the cognitive institutions of cryptocurrency

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6442610
AutoresEnrico Petracca (0000-0001-7572-8117), Shaun Gallagher (0000-0002-3147-9929)
Año2024
Volumen24
Número1
Páginas125-144
Fecha de publicación2024-04-15
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMind & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1593-7879 • E-ISSN: 1860-1839
EditorialSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11299-024-00302-z
OpenAlexW4394838050
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas29

The stated aim of cryptocurrencies is to free the monetary system from the need to trust financial intermediaries, by relying on incentive design and technology. Many descriptive studies, however, have questioned cryptocurrencies’ delivery on the promise of trustlessness. This paper promotes a normative analysis of trust in cryptocurrencies by discussing (i) whether trust is in principle eliminable, and (ii) whether trustlessness is in itself a desirable goal. These issues are closely related, we argue, to the further issue of what kind of institutions cryptocurrencies represent. We discuss the cognitive functions played by cryptocurrencies through the lens of the “extended mind” hypothesis in the philosophy of mind and hence conceive of cryptocurrencies as mind-extending institutions. As the models of institutional mind extension differ in the fiduciary bond they assume exists between individuals and institutional resources, we compare the reliance-based model of “scaffolding institutions” with the trust-based model of “cognitive institutions,” showing that the ineliminability and desirability of trust lead to seeing cryptocurrencies as instances of the latter. In the end, our discussion suggests that trust is a necessary component of cryptocurrencies’ cognitive functions and its promotion helps to perform such cognitive functions more effectively and sustainably

Business · Cognition · Computer security · Cryptocurrency · Epistemology · Philosophy of science · Psychiatry · Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis · Computer Science · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Philosophy · Psychology