The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, warned that the growing dependence of the company with regard to digital infrastructure could erode public confidence unless technologies are based on open and verifiable foundations.
In a blog post of September 24, he argued that health care systems, civic tools and personal technologies are faced with increased risks when users cannot see how the systems that governing them work.
Buterin said that the rapid pace of global innovation has deepened humanity dependence on digital tools, from health trackers to encrypted messages. This dependence, he warned, can create dangerous concentrations of power if companies or governments control the underlying infrastructure.
To avoid this result, he urged developers to prioritize the open source design and verifiability that end users can check directly.
According to him:
“(These technologies) The advantages are too large, and in a highly competitive global environment, civilizations that reject these technologies will lose the first competitiveness, then sovereignty to those who kiss them. However, in addition to offering powerful advantages, these technologies deeply affect the dynamics of power, inside and between countries. ”
Open systems applications
Buterin underlined health care as a sector where the issues are particularly high.
He explained that owner health data platforms leave individuals dependent on business guards, who can charge costs or completely block access.
On the other hand, the open and verifiable systems would allow defensive biotechnology to fight against pandemics while preserving public confidence in the data behind the answer.
He also warned that security -free data systems create direct security threats. Stolen health files could allow insurers to operate customers or criminals to target victims according to the follow -up of the location. He noted:
“If this type of personal health data is not safe, someone who hackers can make you sing on all health problems, optimize the price of insurance and health products to extract the value of you, and if the data include monitoring of the location, they know where to wait to kidnap you.”
In the case of brain interfaces, a successful hack could allow hostile actors to read or manipulate a person’s thoughts, a scenario that he underlined is no longer science fiction.
Buterin argued that the same risks extend to civic technology and personal devices.
According to him, transparent voting systems, encrypted communication and open source operating systems could counter centralization and authorize users, while closed systems increase the risk of handling and locking.
The co-founder Ethereum estimated:
“The tools open for the building must be widely available, and the infrastructure and code bases must be freely dismissed to allow others to build up.”
Cryptography solution
Buterin has recognized that the realization of his vision of “open and verifiable” societies will require advanced cryptography, including zero knowledge of knowledge, homomorphic encryption and formally verified material.
According to him:
“ZK -Snarks, encryption and entirely homomorphic obscure – are so powerful because they allow you to calculate arbitrary programs on data in multi -party contexts, and offer guarantees on the output, while keeping the data and the private calculation.”
Although these systems can sacrifice certain performance and challenge standard commercial models, he insisted that compromises are worth it.
Buterin proposed to start with areas where confidence is more important than speed, such as secure communications and health care applications. He argued that developers can create models that gradually extend through the digital economy by first integrating openness and verifiability in these areas.
However, Buterin concluded that:
“It is not realistic to reach maximum security and opening for everything. But we can start by ensuring that these properties are available in the fields where they really count. ”
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