Trust in blockchain networks has traditionally been symmetric, such that all nodes in a system use one common assumption about potential faults. Such trust is homogeneous, now it becomes heterogeneous.

With asymmetric distributed trust, every node is free to choose who to trust. This was first seen on the XRP Ledger and in the Stellar blockchain. We have developed formal notions for asymmetric distributed trust as a basis for future blockchain networks.

With Luca Zanolini, Björn Tackmann, and Orestis Alpos we have recently consolidated our work on asymmetric distributed trust into a full journal paper, with examples, protocols for distributed storage, consensus and more: See the updated report Asymmetric Distributed Trust on Arxiv.org.