Rationality is Self-Defeating in Permissionless Systems
arXiv:1910.08820v129 citations
Originality Highly original
AI Analysis
This addresses a foundational security issue for decentralized systems like blockchains, presenting a novel theoretical critique rather than an incremental improvement.
The paper tackles the problem of security in open-world decentralized systems by arguing that rational behavior can be self-defeating, concluding that systems relying on rationality assumptions are inherently insecure.
We outline a metacircular argument explaining why it is rational to be irrational when attacking open-world decentralized systems, and why systems whose security depend on rationality assumptions are insecure.