Nick Szabo  🔑

It is better to have a centralized component than to rely on the good will of anonymous peers.

@el33th4xor @petertoddbtc rather depends. do you have to trust this centralised component? are you trusting economic majority of the peers?

@adam3us Note how @el33th4xor specifically said "good will"

@petertoddbtc note how I said "are you trusting economic majority of peers?" @el33th4xor unclear "rely on the good will of anonymous peers"

@adam3us @el33th4xor Not everything is about Bitcoin; even in your example economic majority ≠ you can rely on goodwill.

@petertoddbtc @el33th4xor as wider point, still depends. eg tor trusts random peers over central servers. depends how many peers & what for.

@petertoddbtc @el33th4xor good will of random person often more reliable than of central entity with own agenda or bias. hence eg juries?

@adam3us @petertoddbtc Hi Adam, this discussion was prompted by security of dhts. Trusting 1 is better than trusting all N. Both bad though.