Adam Goldman is a veteran entrepreneur and co-founder of Bitbuy.ca, a cryptocurrency brokerage firm. In this opinion piece, Goldman argues that no economy is free from the risks of human imperfection and that a ‘trustless’ system like the blockchain is needed in a free-market economy. Milton Friedman once said, "Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless." So, why is it believed that we should entrust money management to governments? It seems that as we progress and evolve through the problems inherent in our highly regulated, government-controlled economies, we ignore a simple truth. The truth is that our economies, our institutions, are not just merely created by man, but regulated, maintained, altered, manipulated and changed by man, for better or for worse, whether sought or unsought. This is to say that no such economy or its participants are immune from human imperfection. One word that represents an immutable standard in a successful free-market economic system, is trust. But what is it that must be trusted? A proprietor, a merchant, or a bank? The economy itself? The ability to prevent or allow interference? We place our assets and transact with these "trusted" participants through reputations, relationships and experience. This trust is not to be assumed, for bad fortune may surface for those who do. What if there was a solution to eliminate trust as a requirement for transacting safely in a free-market economy? One that has an inalienable set of rules, similar to the constitutional rights of American citizens. We need a "trustless" system. Enter the blockchain Ever since bitcoin disrupted many of our lives, its underlying technology, the blockchain has awakened sleeping giants from big finance to governments around the world. Now, they are racing to develop and evolve […]
