Author: Wladimir J. van der Laan 2015-09-01 20:29:39
Published on: 2015-09-01T20:29:39+00:00
In an email to the bitcoin-dev mailing list, Justus Ranvier outlined three essential properties that bitcoin users should have. Firstly, they should own their bitcoins and retain exclusive control over their balances. Secondly, their fraction of the bitcoin ledger must not be diluted. Lastly, users should be able to spend their coins without requiring permission from a third party. However, these properties are only possible if the system remains decentralized. Both miner and full node over-centralization could result in permission requirements to submit transactions, transactions being reversed without consent, and dilution of users' fractions of the ledger. Without decentralization, bitcoin is just an inefficient ledger database, and all of its attractive properties are derived from spreading responsibility as widely globally as possible.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T21:32:13.562781+00:00