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What I fail to understand, and thanks to your explanation, is why not use a central trusted ledger which would synchronize all transactions. It could surely wor

by xwolfi 5y ago

What I fail to understand, and thanks to your explanation, is why not use a central trusted ledger which would synchronize all transactions. It could surely work at the current speed of bitcoin and relieve the entire planet of the energy cost of bitcoin, providing the same safety that no double spend could happen. All you'd need is a small private army, a few lawyers, an historically accepted jurisdiction, and you'd be ready to go with your central ledger. I don't think you're right to say double spending is the only thing being solved with proof of work, I think people are trying very very very hard not to centralize (for no good reason in my opinion), despite the prohibitive cost, and why ? Because of that insane fear the ledgers would be changed: hence you'd have to admit the author was a bit right that eventually this whole story is to protect paranoid people against a very absurd risk at the cost of asking government to subsidize reopening coal mines...

rep_movsd 5y ago
This is called the state backed banking system. Eventually they will make all your money digital. They will track everything you buy. Then at the very least they will sell your information to advertisers, and at worst retain totalitarian control over all your purchasing power. Its already happening in China - the state has the power to prevent people from travelling etc. based on their "social credit" The US is making a CBDC (central bank digital currency). No matter how pure the intentions of creating a government backed digital currency are, it will degenerate into a means of control
- Scarblac 5y ago
  > Eventually they will make all your money digital. They will track everything you buy. Which is why Bitcoin starts out doing exactly that by default?
dolmen 5y ago
You mean like... paying using a card number (VISA, Mastercard, Amex) on the Internet?
Geee 5y ago
If the central trusted ledger starts censoring transactions, blocking users or producing invalid blocks with additional rewards to themselves, then what? Just keep going with it and accept the new reality? Then we would be back at what we have now - the current central bank monetary system. Trustless decentralized architecture makes the Bitcoin network incredibly robust against attacks on its principles. It can't be changed (without users/capital switching over to new version), stopped or censored by anyone.

by xwolfi 5y ago

rep_movsd 5y ago

This is called the state backed banking system. Eventually they will make all your money digital. They will track everything you buy. Then at the very least they will sell your information to advertisers, and at worst retain totalitarian control over all your purchasing power. Its already happening in China - the state has the power to prevent people from travelling etc. based on their "social credit" The US is making a CBDC (central bank digital currency). No matter how pure the intentions of creating a government backed digital currency are, it will degenerate into a means of control

Scarblac 5y ago
> Eventually they will make all your money digital. They will track everything you buy. Which is why Bitcoin starts out doing exactly that by default?

dolmen 5y ago

You mean like... paying using a card number (VISA, Mastercard, Amex) on the Internet?

Geee 5y ago

If the central trusted ledger starts censoring transactions, blocking users or producing invalid blocks with additional rewards to themselves, then what? Just keep going with it and accept the new reality? Then we would be back at what we have now - the current central bank monetary system. Trustless decentralized architecture makes the Bitcoin network incredibly robust against attacks on its principles. It can't be changed (without users/capital switching over to new version), stopped or censored by anyone.