<nettime> the 5th Law of Thermodynamics: conservation of Trust in humans

[Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@gmail.com>]

The first few talks at the just started "Blockchain Protocol Analysis 
and Security Engineering" conference at Stanford have an interesting 
aspect - they illustrate the thriving field of subverting the machines, 
reducing various 'invincible' schemes to 19th and 20th century banking 
risks:

- successful attacks on hardware wallets;
- bribery of miners with ... wait for it ... smart contracts (one of 
which was named GoldfingerCon);
- successful attacks on networks (full nodes + miners).

In short, we are back to trusting people designing hardware, 
implementing protocols and executing programs. It didn't take long, 
these technologies were just new shiny armor, and now the shaped charge 
industries caught up with it.

It's unclear what was/is the net gain, other then attempt to hijack 
banking business and related jobs (Uber for banking - is that what it's 
all about?)
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