The issue of user trust in decentralized applications running on blockchain platforms

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the issue of trust and trust-related factors in the context of decentralized applications running on public blockchain platforms such as Ethereum. These decentralized applications emphasize a lack of reliance on a trusted third party, and are marketed as applications that cannot be censored or stopped. To determine whether either social trust or technology trust applies in these cases, we examine the extent to which these applications could be considered to be out of the control of a third party, by qualitatively analyzing how developers define the characteristics of decentralization, trustlessness and autonomy. The results show that although decentralized applications' websites make reference to these concepts, they are not defined in the same way. In cases where there is no mention of either of these concepts, it is therefore difficult to say which definitions are assumed. In addition, we also found contradictions in the characterization of the level of developer control. We discuss these findings in the context of research on user trust and propose future research directions.