It doesn't necessarily require a central bank, which everyone must be compelled to use, it just requires a banking system. If someone wishes to pay you, and hap

It doesn't necessarily require a central bank, which everyone must be compelled to use, it just requires a banking system. If someone wishes to pay you, and happens to use a different bank to yourself, then your bank (whom you, admittedly, have to trust) can work on your behalf, directly with the sourcing bank, to claim the funds. There's quite good reason to trust in this system because our bank knows that the sourcing bank can identify double-spenders. The plus side of such a system is honest bank customers still get complete anonymity, even if the banks conspire against you. The downside is you can never know if your bank is conspiring against their customers as a whole i.e. by not operating in line with their inflation/reserve policy... which of course is one of Bitcoins best features.