Much like my doctorate in law, my PhD in Economics suffers from the grave disadvantage of being independently verifiable
Much like my doctorate in law, my PhD in Economics suffers from the grave disadvantage of being independently verifiable.
One may visit the University of Exeter repository and find Bitcoin Protocol Analysis: Game Theory and Protocol Integrity, deposited as a doctoral thesis in Economics. The university record identifies the qualification as a PhD in Economics, names the academic department, lists the supervisors and provides the thesis itself for download. Exeter also happens to be a Russell Group university, although I realise institutional records are terribly unfashionable among people who prefer to conduct credential checks by exchanging rumours on social media.
The thesis develops an economic and mathematical analysis of proof-of-work mining. It constructs an unbounded-horizon stochastic game incorporating block production, fees, difficulty adjustment, propagation, validation costs and strategic behaviour over time. In other words, it studies Bitcoin as an economic system rather than as a collection of slogans recited by men standing beside price charts.
Its argument is that mining behaviour, concentration and the cyclical movement of hash rate and difficulty emerge from the interaction between protocol mechanics and dynamic incentives. These are not decorative technical details added to make an economic model appear modern. They are part of the institution being modelled. Remove them and one may still produce elegant mathematics, but one is no longer necessarily analysing Bitcoin.
I know this is all terribly blasé. Anyone may simply go to the University of Exeter website, locate the thesis, read the official record and inspect the work. Verification lacks the dramatic splendour of speculation, but it does possess the compensating virtue of being true.
Naturally, holding a PhD in Economics does not mean that every proposition I advance must be accepted. A doctorate is evidence of completed doctoral research, again not a papal decree delivered in academic robes. People remain free to challenge the models, the assumptions, the proofs and the conclusions.
What they cannot reasonably do is pretend that the degree does not exist merely because checking would interfere with a cherished little narrative.
The thesis is there. The university is there. The degree is recorded there. The work may be downloaded and examined.
Some critics will still fail to find it, of course. There are none so blind as those who have already written the reply.