Satoshi Nakamoto outlined the basis of Blockchain and subsequently bitcoin with the above quote in his 2008 paper.
The paper also anticipated the 51% attack:
“If a greedy attacker is able to assemble more CPU power than all the honest nodes, he would have to choose between using it to defraud people by stealing back his payments, or using it to generate new coins. He ought to find it more profitable to play by the rules…”
While Nakamoto misread criminal intent, reading the paper now makes it clear that Blockchain was oversold by others. Successful hacks are in the news, and they are accomplished as it was anticipated.
This implies that while proof is important, there still is a place for trust. As things become more open source, the placement of barriers becomes a more delicate but crucial question.
