We're back to the problem of trust. It takes more than smart algorithms to open minds. Trust, even when it's backed by threats of prison or sacred oaths or relentless blockchain record collection, still depends on a person's willingness to depend on the process, and to fail if it fails. That's a leap familiar, say, to Sixers fans.



So "fake news and lack of trust are not necessarily things the blockchain can address," Werbach tells me. "The key to trust in the news often goes beyond factual, rational predictions. If you need to attribute to a source, blockchain is a way of verifying a fact. But if you have people who are just not willing to believe a fact is true, or believing a falsehood is true, not even the blockchain can change that."