I'm just trying to understand how it would work.
How are deterministic builds better than distributing binaries with hashes for verification? Just because I don't have to trust the original author's compiler?
Indeed, that's precisely why it's such an important protection mechanism. But it's about more than just not having to trust the original author's compiler. The original author might maliciously copy-paste some additional source code into the build process just before compilation.
Deterministic builds are a way for any of us to download any source code, build it, and verify that all of us are using a binary derived from exactly that source code, and nothing else.
Cool. Thanks for the explanation.
My first thought is that the next attack will be analogous to fake Amazon reviews. "This binary with the hash e99a12d388afa2fa5fdde8ed3bcbe055 gets five stars! After using 51fc8eff10b2fccec9890fe5d1b0cfd9 for years, I've realized that e99a12 is far superior in speed and robustness. I recommend you upgrade today!"