I would not consider it a solution to mistrust, but rather a way to obviate it altogether. Bitcoin is simply a way to achieve consensus about value that is sec

I would not consider it a solution to mistrust, but rather a way to obviate it altogether. Bitcoin is simply a way to achieve consensus about value that is secure and decentralized. Many people consider it a currency, and certainly that is true, but I think it best to consider it a network, or even better, a form of communication. You can 'speak' on the Bitcoin network in very powerful ways. You can broadcast transactions and transfer value with extraordinary security and robustness. Statements like this, without Bitcoin, require enormous effort: legal systems, governments, and ultimately armies. This result is obviously not a technical one, but a social one. It is mediated by technology, but the rules and incentives of participation are social. You trust Bitcoin 'speech' because you understand what motivates network participants and conclude that fraud is phenomenally unlikely. But a society that uses Bitcoin is not suddenly without trust, or even diminished in trust. It simply no longer requires trust for certain things. ____ > Societies with higher levels of trust tend to do better than others Trust, in this sense, could be considered as a resource. More trust lets you do more things. But if you don't require trust for a function, that trust may be used for other purposes. It is in this sense that trust can be considered a liability: you have to 'spend' trust to achieve an end, and thus must maintain its supply. A society that cooperates well can achieve more, but may also be more vulnerable if that trust should wane. To whatever extent trust and cooperation are self-reinforcing, I think history has plenty of examples of such systems collapsing to make this a worthwhile consideration.