>At some point we must realize that exchanges are the problem, because they centralize activity [...] But i somehow think that that tech will be over time embed

>At some point we must realize that exchanges are the problem, because they centralize activity [...] But i somehow think that that tech will be over time embedded in desktops and phones, we won't need exchanges. Exchanges of some type will always exist and get re-invented as an emergent phenomenon of humans' desire for efficiency. - a seller wants to sell something (corporate stock, or commmodity like corn or oil, or collectibles like Nike shoes, cryptocoins, etc) ... but doesn't know who the future unknown buyers will be to fetch the highest price - a buyer wants to buy something ... but doesn't know the future unknown sellers to try and find the lowest price -- or even availability of an item at any price -- such as hard-to-find NVIDIA video cards Those 2 forces of each side trying to maximize a marketplace will naturally re-create exchanges. Yes, they are "centralized". That's kind of the point because people value efficiency in finding each other to transact. There is no computer science technology that lets buyers & sellers store future unknown market participants locally on their smartphones. Likewise, if you try to get around not having hubs/exchanges on a p2p network by constantly broadcasting buy/sell bids/asks, you're basically asking a billion local devices to recreate in their limited RAM a virtual "order book" of which all participants have an incomplete picture of the total market (because time limitations of network hops, latency, etc) -- which means less optimal selling & buying prices. You're also overwhelming the p2p network with traffic for "bids/asks" (pinging price queries) rather than "settlements" (finalized transactions). In analogous desire for efficiency, this is why p2p bittorrent still has hubs like tracking servers because people want to find the files faster than waiting for cascading peer queries. EDIT reply to: >Decentralized exchanges exist Yes, DEX like Uniswap exist but they do not solve the same problems as centralized exchanges and market makers. There is no protocol invention or DEX that can prevent the re-emergence of centralized exchanges because there's always a gap in desirable functions (efficiency, discoverability, liquidity, convertibility, etc). E.g. convert to fiat on Uniswap not currently possible: https://www.google.com/search?q=uniswap+convert+to+fiat https://www.google.com/search?q=uniswap+convert+to+fiat