The True “Aboutness” of Blockchain and Why We Are All Crypto Sherpas
Using Phenomenology to explain, not just describe what blockchain really is
Most Blockchain explanations are actually descriptions and they are confusing
As a Medium reader you will find endless posts explaining Blockchain. Blockchain for babies, for high-schoolers, for your mother, for python developers, blockchain primers, for investors, for the savvy, for those who get it and those who want to try it.
Also, if you are in New York you are probably thinking of, talking about, investing in and explaining blockchain all day long (below).
However most of these explanations I think obscure rather than clarify, or as Evan Hansen, alum editor for Medium and now editor-in-chief at Periscope, wrote in The Blockchain Explained:
“I’ve been collecting explanations of the blockchain I’ve found in some of the posts I’ve been reading. It’s not easy to ‘splain this well.”
The reason is that we are describing, not explaining.
What is the difference between description and explanation?
Descriptions are a detailed account of the certain or salient aspects, characteristics or features of a matter seen, heard, experienced or known, and although in the theory of descriptions, British Philosopher Bertrand Russel (1915) delves into the problem of co-referring and non-referring expressions, descriptions simply respond to the questions what, when, who and how.
“Water is H2O”; “Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed ledger” are descriptions, not explanations
Explanations on the other hand, as written by Carl Hempel (1948) include a description (explanandum), but also facts which clarify causes, context, and consequences of those facts (explanans).
Thus, explanations answer the question of why.
Explanations do not need to be necessarily long. They require both observational and analytical skills (aka Formal-Logical) and need to be pragmatic. An explanation that is satisfying by ‘scientific’ standards but leaves the asker completely in the dark, is not considered a good explanation. Explanations must cater to the demander’s knowledge (‘epistemic state’) be it an individual or a collective.
A method to explain the ‘aboutness’ of Blockchain
As a pain doctor I always paid attention to my patient’s words. That is why I found asking a patient ‘what is your pain score on a scale of 1–10’ silly. It assumes linearity (4 is double than 2) and presupposes that all numbers mean the same to different people, regardless of context. Obviously the scale does not capture the ‘meaning’ of pain shaped by experience, history and culture.
So in order to understand the ‘aboutness’ of pain, instead of asking silly questions (and consequently ordering silly tests and giving silly treatments), I made a habit of asking my patients Phenomenological questions.
For those not familiar with Phenomenology (the study of ‘phenomena’), it is the Objective Science of Subjectivity and is a way to investigate the ‘aboutness’ (meaning) of anything (like Pain, DNA, iphones, capitalism and even blockchain).
Since explaining is a central concern for phenomenologists who devote most of their time to scrutinize first-person perspectives, structures of experiences and intentionality, Phenomenology explains things without recourse to theory, deduction, or assumptions and explains them simply as they are (real or not), without ‘scientifying’ them. Husserl called it going “back to the things themselves” (Husserl, 1901).
According to Husserl once shedding assumptions (a state he called suspension or Epoché) you need to ask only two questions:
- What does this thing mean to you in its presence? (aka essential reduction)
- What does this thing mean to you in its absence? (aka essential or eidetic variation [eidos=essence])
So what do the answers for blockchain look like?
- What does blockchain mean to you?- decentralization? disintermediation? empowerment? trust? innovation? making money fast?
- What does a world without blockchain mean to you?- centralization? waste? coercion? mistrust? being bored or poor?
The ‘aboutness’ of Blockchain is written in history
In order to explain blockchain we must use the why question and recall the circumstances around the emergence of Bitcoin, the first and best-known cryptocurrency for which blockchain technology was invented.
Bitcoin was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto to solve the double-spending problem for digital currency using a peer-to-peer network. It emerged on the heels of the 2008 financial meltdown and in its genesis block (block number 0) mined on January 3rd, 2009 was embedded the text:
“Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” (The Times)
This is important because although we often describe Cryptocurrencies, Distributed Ledgers and Distributed Autonomous Organization as disruptive technologies (table below), the message “second bailout for banks” embedded in the raw hex version suggests that rescuing the banks was a problem for Satoshi and that perhaps bitcoin’s purpose was to replace fractional reserve banking.
Explanations define who we are as a community
In the crypto-community some point to what blockchain is missing, others fret that it’s purpose is unclear and changing. Some hedge on what blockchain will become, while others state clearly what it does. (Please read Nik Custodio interesting post The Other Side of the Coin, describing how a decentralized world will look like).
However if as history suggests, Blockchain’s purpose is to at least challenge if not to replace the centralized financial system with an attack-resistant, collusion-free, peer-to-peer decentralized world, I suggest from now on to explain that blockchain is:
A technology that solves the social problem of mistrust.
This simple and elegant explanation not only encapsulates the why and the original intent of Blockchain (intentionality is a big theme in phenomenology), but also helps to clearly define who we are as a community.
(Read Avery Erwin How Blockchain Is Helping Technology Get Its Soul Back).
Finally, if blockchain is the first step in a journey to create a better, inclusive, participatory, connected world, aren’t we all in essence Crypto Sherpas?
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware”. (Martin Buber, I-Thou, 1937)
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