> You can't remove the need for trust - that need is inherently beyond the reach of math. That hides more than it reveals. Yes, trust is beyond math. Measuri

> You can't remove the need for trust - that need is inherently beyond the reach of math. That hides more than it reveals. Yes, trust is beyond math. Measuring value is also beyond math. However there are ways of measuring value that aren't amenable to math (eg, how much you like a diamond) and ways of measuring value that are amenable to math (how much you are willing to pay for the diamond). The first worked method fine in a subsistence economy. The second way is how our current economy works. We are not completely and utterly dependent on being able to measure and transfer value with math. If we could not do it capitalism would not exist, nor would our society or way of life. And so it is with trust. You can trust a banker not to embezzle your money because he has a reputation, mouths to feed, or he's your brother, or he will be perused by government agents armed with big guns, or any number of the other reasons we do now - none of which are easily quantified. Or you can trust him because he can't undo his decisions without corrupting a while pile of others and do to that he had to expend the net energy output of New Zealand for days. One is amenable to being manipulated with math, and one isn't. Because the trust provided by crypto currencies can be quantified and manipulated with math we have smart contracts. Smart contracts mean the example you gave about trusting someone to deliver the goods means a computer can be the escrow agent and it is all done automatically the 99 times in 100 there is no dispute. Yes, the OP was wrong in that crypto currencies allow us to replace trust with math. But only a little wrong. Crypto currencies allow us to manipulate and transfer trust with math, which is not so different.