Re: <nettime> Blockchain & Bureaucracy (review of blockchains for

[Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@gmail.com>]

Good overview. I'll take issue with the phrase "[de-]centralized"
which was mentioned 11 times.

1. code is *not* de-centralized, although it's open source, as there
is a small number of people (close to single-digit) that practically
has authority to modify it, and it doesn't look it will change in the
future. For example, I can't change the applied code, and it would be
easier for me to work my way into the US Federal Reserve management
to influence printing of the US dollar, than to work my way into the
'core developers' cabal. To dispel the fantasy of some 'democratic
process', witness the current DAO situation.

2. Minting is *not* de-centralized. [I already beat that horse to
death, ad nauseam.]

Deciding on the future of Bitcoin and related technologies is *more*
centralized than deciding on the future of the major (inter)national
currencies. Nettime subscribers have collectively more control on
nuclear weapons than they have on Bitcoin technologies. And so on.
The fact that in some parallel universe it could be decentralized is
irrelevant - many things work perfectly in parallel universes, but
unfortunately not in ours.

> From the overview, it looks like the end game is several cabals,
replacing few more existing ones.

Technology does not automatically bring democracy, fairness,
neutrality, unless every single individual has full control of it.
It's all about the good old power grab, and creating some more of
the good old unemployment, in this case for the financial middle
management, while waving with decentralization. In essence, Bitcoin
and related technologies boil down to sophisticated intervention in
language.


> implementation of blockchain in businesses that are capable
> of adopting the technology is geared towards replacing middle
> management and intermediaries with autonomous, de-centralized code.
> Take for example,



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