English

Rationality is Self-Defeating in Permissionless Systems

Cryptography and Security 2019-10-22 v1 Computer Science and Game Theory

Abstract

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.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1910.08820,
  title  = {Rationality is Self-Defeating in Permissionless Systems},
  author = {Bryan Ford and Rainer Böhme},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.08820},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

First posted on September 23, 2019 at https://bford.info/2019/09/23/rational/

R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:48:39.322Z