Just like digital marketing and SEO, the world of blockchain loves it’s jargons. These jargons essentially have a pretty straight forward dictionary meaning. However, there’s a lot more to them when you dive in deeper. Today, we discuss one such jargon and try to understand it through a very interesting analogy. The term of the day is: Distributed Trust.
You must have come across this word a lot more than often whenever the topic of blockchain pops up. It is also referred to as trustless network. But what is trustless or distributed trust? Let’s jump in right away:
What is Distributed Trust:
Distributed trust has it’s roots from the core of blockchain technology: decentralization. You see, in conventional economic system, you placed trust in a centralized authority. This is usually RBI in case of India and Federal bank in US parlance. But, in a decentralized system, there is no single authority. So who do you trust with your money? What if someone tries to dupe you? Of course there are miners validating your transactions, but how do you know that they have no intentions to defraud you?
The Kitty Party:
At this point, you might be thinking that I might have lost it. But hold up before you draw any conclusions. Our mothers have been running a system based on distributed trust for years now.
For those of you who don’t know what a kitty party (also called Kameti in some cultures) is, it is a type of common pool of money. All ladies of this fund deposit a fixed amount at a preset interval (usually monthly) and one of them gets to take all that money each month.
As an outcome, after an year (or whatever period this kitty party will run), you are at a no profit, no loss situation, but you get to save/have access to a lumpsum amount from the installments that you had paid.
The winner of the kitty is usually decided by a lucky draw or some other mechanism decided earlier. This is often coupled by a small get together where these ladies can eat, play a game or two of Tambola (Indian Bingo) or may be organize a devotional ceremony.
In a nutshell, it is a great system to socialize and save at the same time.
What does it have to do with Blockchain?
Here’s when things get really interesting. There are a lot of similarities between a kitty party and a system based on distributed trust. In fact these kitties run on a trustless mechanism. Here’s how:
1. State of Network
Just like in a blockchain, where everyone knows the state of the network, it’s nodes and validations done by them, so is the case in a kitty party. Women know where the entire money is at any given point. They have an idea of where is it going to go next and what would be the process of coming to that decision.
2. Cheat Proof:
If a kitty party has 10 ladies and one of them decides to run away with other’s money, she would have to convince most of the other members (if not all) in a such a scheme. Now compare that with the BTC blockchain. It is practically impossible to achieve such a feat. This makes the system much less vulnerable as compared to traditional systems.
3. Decentralized Consensus:
There is an elaborate consensus mechanism behind blockchains. Each node carries the exact same copy of the next block and hence consensus is reached. Any node that is different, is excluded from the system.
Similarly, the process of multiple aspects of a kitty, duration, installment amount, winner choosing is democratized. Everyone agrees to the terms and conditions. If someone is not comfortable with the same, a kitty can be run without him/her.
Conclusion:
Indian women inadvertently have proven that decentralized systems work. The concept of distributed trust where no one owns the pool of the money and everyone simply assumes that the next person will keep their funds safe is just amazing.
Do you think this analogy makes sense?
Got questions? Want to take it to the next level? Reach out to me using your preferred platform from the links below
Until next time..
Oh yes. Almost forgot. If you like reading these blogs in a carousel format, you can follow me on Instagram.
Example of such carousel:
This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla and sponsored by Queen’s Brigade.
Loved the analogy! I have always hated jargons and looked for easier meanings to difficult terms. Thank you for explaining distributed trust in such a simple manner. Keep writing – it will help readers like us to gain practical and usable knowledge.
Thanks for stopping by Mayura. Glad you liked it.
Never knew about blockchain trust. Loved how you explained with the analogy of kitty party and made it simple to understand.
I loved the analogy part here. I too use jargons in my technical articles but really did not know about blockchain analogy. Thanks for such insightful article.
Thanks Pamela. Glad you liked it.
Comparing distributed trust with Kitty Parties is the simplest form of expression. Even I am a part of a kitty group for 40 years now. We have never encountered any cheating all these years.
Thanks for stopping by mam. This throws a lot of light on the power of decentralisation and distributed trust.
Blockchain analogy is something very new to me. Really like the analogy part. Love the simple way, you’ve described everything.
Blockchain analogy trust is a jargon I never cam across. I read in your blog and learnt something new. Wonderful post
Thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked it
This post has made me view kitty parties with a fresh pair of eyes. I’d never thought of it as a financial transaction.
And you’ve helped me understand the concept of distributed trust in blockchain quite easily.
I usually struggle with financial concepts. Clever analogy!
Thanks mam. Glad you liked it
What an explanation and yes it made complete sense. Very well described Analogy 🙂
Thanks. Glad you liked it
I liked the analogy and the way you explained everything in the post. Thanks for sharing this.
That is an interesting analogy and quite a witty way of explaining distributed trust. Never thought of kitty parties in that context although the basics are similar.
When I started reading this post I was like “Errr….how much of this am i going to even understand to be able to give an honest feedback”. But your analogy to the kitty party made it so simple for everyone to understand – even someone with no idea of blockchain or technology. Iam not sure if this was by fluke or if you researched your audience. If it is the latter then kudos for describing it so well and making it relatable. Thank you for sharing this info.
Thanks mam for your kind words. Analogies make everything simpler. And if you can make them relatable, that’s just cherry on the top.
I didn’t know about blockchain. This is a nice way of explaining it using kitty parties as an example.
Thanks Mam. Glad you liked it
I really liked your analogy. Now I will look at the kitty parties with a new set of eyes
You very well explained distributed trust by comparing it with Kitty Party. I really liked your analogy. Very informative post.
You very well explained distributed trust by comparing it with Kitty Party. I really liked your analogy. Very informative post.
I found it a little confusing to understand blockchain’s distribution though I am familiar with kitty party pooling. Your article explains it very well but I will be reading it again and again just to understand it more better.
Honestly, the first few lines went above my head. But you explained it so well with your analogy now I am curious to know more and have googled it online.
An interesting post. Keep writing!
An interesting analogy on a topic i had no clue of! Welcome to the blog hop!
Thanks. ☺️