Isn't he the guy that invented Proof of Work ?
"One of" at the very least. Lest people think you were kidding:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_systemBack to the paranoia meme for a moment - has he gone over to the dark side with his honey object research or - gulp - was he always on the dark side? No, not our Dark - "their" dark.

My takeaway on this kind of stuff is always - build it all trustless. Doing it is mere implementation detail (meaning I have no clue about how to pull it off).