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1. Dictionary definitions

If we examine the definitions of trust in some of the most popular dictionaries (Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, Britannica, Collins, and Dictionary.com), we find that they all fall into two main categories:

1. Personality, character, and ability
  • assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something
  • one in which confidence is placed
  • the belief that you can trust someone or something
  • belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.
  • Your trust in someone is your belief that they are honest and sincere and will not deliberately do anything to harm you
  • reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence
  • a person on whom or thing on which one relies
2. Safekeeping, charge, custody, and care
  • something committed or entrusted to one to be used or cared for in the interest of another
  • a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship
  • in trust: in the care or possession of a trustee
  • an arrangement in which someone’s property or money is legally held or managed by someone else or by an organisation for usually a set period of time
  • the condition of one to whom something has been entrusted
  • something committed or entrusted to one’s care for use or safekeeping, as an office, duty, or the like; responsibility; charge
  • the obligation or responsibility imposed on a person in whom confidence or authority is placed

These two categories complement one another. You would never entrust your assets to a person if you lacked confidence in their character, for instance. You could also say that at level 1, you trust a person to have a favourable attitude towards you, to tell the truth, to be able to complete an assigned task, etc. So, let’s refer to the first level of trust as ‘shallow trust’.

However, the second level of trust (let’s call it ‘deep trust’) goes even further and is demonstrated when you entrust someone with something of great value to you. For instance, a secret, responsibility over one’s assets, responsibility over one’s life or the life of a loved one, etc. Therefore, the second level of trust is more profound than the first.

In a DLT system, deep trust is required, as shallow trust in third-party intermediaries is insufficient to entrust one’s assets to them.