Exactly one of the major issues blocking consumer-level adoption of decentralization technologies. Centralized trust is just too darn convenient, especially wr

Exactly one of the major issues blocking consumer-level adoption of decentralization technologies. Centralized trust is just too darn convenient, especially wrt backups. As with most ideological debates, the middle ground is probably the most amicable. Bigger crypto-nerds than me will have more fleshed out ideas, I'm sure, but there are ways to have a hybrid centralized/decentralized approach. One algorithm I've heard tossed around, for example, is shamir's secret sharing. Basically you can split a key between different parties... no one party/dealer/mechanic/DMV has access to the family jewels, but you can reconstruct the secret with 3 of the 5 pieces or whatever threshold. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir's_Secret_Sharing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir's_Secret_Sharing The challenge is, like you say, to make all this magic enough that it becomes consumer friendly. Much more fulfilling a UX gig than designing virtual farms, though.