Conclusion

Power centralisation, in our opinion, is the most serious issue confronting humanity right now. If we are successful in developing a real solution to this problem, we believe it will be the most valuable and useful technology in human history. Bitcoin attempted to address the issue of money centralisation and achieved unprecedented success as the first (reasonably) working solution. However, even if it is the best monetary solution to date, it is insufficient to adequately address the current centralisation problem in all its facets. For that we need a scalable, rapid, and efficient solution that is at least as secure and decentralised as Bitcoin.

Satoshi does not see himself as a wordsmith which is probably the reason he did not give us a detailed explanation of ‘the why’ of Bitcoin. Hence, we did not want to skimp on words again this time (although we too are not great with words). But it was critical to us that our objectives be consistent with Satoshi’s original intentions and principles. That’s why Trusdee shares Satoshi’s fundamental premise, the philosophy that underpins Bitcoin, and the mindset of the Bitcoin community. Since the mission of Bitcoin and Trusdee are aligned, Trusdee is not a competitor to Bitcoin, but rather the next evolutionary stage of Bitcoin. So that our community is never again subjected to allegations that include: Bitcoin is too slow and not scalable; a waste of energy (and thus environmental pollution); offers little privacy protection by default; is missing modern features like smart contracts, etc. On the contrary, the next generation of Bitcoin outperforms all altcoins that have attempted to enhance Bitcoin while at the same time sacrificing Bitcoin’s fundamental values and principles. It even surpasses all of Bitcoin’s strengths. As a result, Trusdee is the only technology capable of bringing the fundamental idea and promises of Bitcoin to the entire world without any limitations. It’s the ultimate dream of all freedom maximalists (freedom-loving people).

We sincerely hope that we did not fall out of favour with any Bitcoin enthusiast with this article, because that was never our intention. And it is definitely not intended to be a Bitcoin FUD article either. Rather, we have endeavoured to show everyone our total and wholehearted conviction in Bitcoin’s mission. The only reason we wrote this article is because we firmly believe that Trusdee can achieve the ultimate goal of Bitcoin’s mission sooner and indeed is capable of achieving it at all. This is feasible by addressing all issues of the present DLT solutions while advancing all of Bitcoin’s strengths even further. That is why we couldn’t resist but publish this piece.

We would never have publicised this concept if it had a negative impact on either decentralisation or security, or if a second layer solution could solve all of the base layer difficulties at once (without adding new issues). We only want to challenge the status quo if it benefits the majority of people, which we believe our approach does.

That being said, Bitcoin as an asset isn’t going anywhere.

Individuals like us, who are well aware of the iniquity caused by the centralisation of money and thus simply yearn for a serious alternative to fiat currencies, are often branded and dismissed as Bitcoin Maxis. However, we are confident that the majority of Bitcoin users are open to better alternatives and would be willing to switch to another system at any time if there was a truly superior system with the same sound monetary policy as Bitcoin. Even Matthew Kratter (one of the most vocal Bitcoin advocates) concurs:

If there were something else that were to come along I would be willing to go after it. So I’m not technically a Bitcoin Maxi in this sense. I am open to new possibilities.

And once again he confirms that he is open to better/other solutions:

If you have a better solution then Bitcoin I’d love to hear it. [...] I think Bitcoin’s the best solution for this but if there are other solutions I would love to hear them as well.

These two statements represent the mindset of the wider Bitcoin community quite well. Yet, just designing a Bitcoin-like system with a few minor improvements is wholly inadequate. And, no matter how brilliant the new capabilities or upgrades, developing an alternative that sacrifices decentralisation or security is certainly not an option.

Instead, as Robert Breedlove aptly described:

A true Bitcoin killer would necessitate an entirely new consensus and distribution model and nothing to date has been conceived that could fulfil this requirement.

That is just what we have proposed in this article. We also have a game-changing distribution model that far outperforms all previous models. However, we do not want to make this critical decision without first consulting with the community to determine whether it is the ideal distribution model for Trusdee and/or how it could be improved or even replaced by a better one.

In this article, we have not only outlined the problem with the centralisation of power, but also the problem with Satoshi’s proposed solution. In his opinion, the solution is a “decentralized, non-trust-based system”:

A lot of people automatically dismiss e-currency as a lost cause because of all the companies that failed since the 1990’s. I hope it’s obvious it was only the centrally controlled nature of those systems that doomed them. I think this is the first time we’re trying a decentralized, non-trust-based system.

In our eyes, Satoshi almost got it right. Yes, every centrally controlled currency is ultimately doomed. But trying to eliminate trust from a money system is the one thing Satoshi didn’t get right. Firstly, because it’s impossible, and secondly because we believe that dismissing the power of good trust is a momentous fallacy.

Contrary to expectations, the best approach to achieving the goal of a “trustless” system (a system with minimal blind trust dependency) is to use a trust-based system. Because users who do not trust anyone can simply host their own node and select it as their Trust-Node. As a result, they are not dependent on any trusted third party.

After boiling down the trust problem to its first principles and reasoning up from there, we found that it is possible to solve the system integrity problem most elegantly with the following two features:

Put the operator’s reputation on the line (instead of their money).
Allow users to select their trusted operators (aka trustees).

These two features significantly boost users’ trust in the system. Nonetheless, we recognise that it is not immediately evident that increasing trust should be the solution when trust is the problem. However, this is solely down to the fact that the term trust is often used vaguely by the DLT communities. In fact, we actually do not have a problem with trust but with blind trust dependency (as argued in Perspectives on trust). And if we do it right this time, we can unleash unimaginable possibilities, much like Airbnb did when they designed a system founded on trust and reputation:

On any given night, 2 million people stay in homes on Airbnb in 100,000 cities all over the world. There are more than 6 million listings in 191 countries to choose from — that’s more than the top five hotel chains combined.
What makes all of that possible? Trust.

If trust is the foundation for sharing one’s home with strangers, how much more should it serve as the foundation for financial matters? And, if the success of a social system (a system involving interpersonal interactions) is essentially determined by the level of trust it earns from its users, we can infer that for such a system, trust maximisation is success maximisation.

With this article, we have also been able to demonstrate the outstanding properties of a trust-based system that results from the above assumption. Trustnets outperform every decentralised technology we have seen so far in all aspects (decentralisation, security, scalability, speed, energy consumption, fairness, cost efficiency, and feature coverage).

It is the very first time we will have all the benefits of digital gold (like Bitcoin) and digital cash (like PayPal or Venmo) combined in one system. A form of digital gold cash so to speak. The characteristics of this hybrid are so appealing that even central banks are actively seeking such a payment solution. However, they believe that this is currently only viable with CBDCs. With Trusdee, we have the chance to convincingly invalidate this assumption.

Simply said, the entire Trusdee project is about protection (of human rights, developing countries, and the environment) and ensuring freedom for all. And the purpose of this article is to raise awareness of these issues and explain why only decentralisation of the current power structure can fix them. Since money is the easiest and most effective tool to exercise power on a large scale, it is the first thing we need to decentralise. Because a technology that wants to confront the current power structure can’t afford to have any weaknesses, we have proposed a completely new approach in this article that solves all the issues with the existing DLT solutions at once. On top of that, the trustnet technology might also have the potential to decentralise parts of the internet, the media and even politics.

That’s what Trusdee is all about.

We think this is the first time we are trying a decentralised, trust-based system.

To paraphrase Spencer Bogart’s closing statement:

In closing, we’re all living through one of the grandest experiments in history and it’s playing out in real time. [We’d] love to hear your feedback about why [we’re] wrong in the viewpoint presented here. Criticism encouraged!

If you enjoyed this article please share it with a friend who might also like it. Thanks a lot for spreading the word!
If you’re interested in updates or want to participate in surveys, votings, discussions and more, follow us on our social media channels: Twitter, YouTube and Facebook
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this new concept with the Trusdee community, leave a comment or join us on our Subreddit and Discord server.
If you wish to help us accelerate the creation of the distribution model and white paper, you can either donate to the following BTC address or contact us here. It will allow us to devote more time to this project, which is currently self-funded.
Donations in Bitcoin: 1EovV2CkynZzYfuJkKHgdwzF7Mo5ZzXLDK
Thank you so much, we really appreciate it!