22. On Decentralization as Key to Success

22

On Decentralization as Key to Success

SATOSHI TALKS HERE about the importance of a decentralized currency as a key to success. As stated earlier, the government’s ability to control the supply of a currency provides an easy way to finance deficit spending. Any centrally controlled electronic currencies that have appeared so far have been dismantled by governments for various reasons. Typical reasons include facilitating money laundering or the purchase of drugs, even though US dollars are the main choice for these financial activities.

Re: Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency

Satoshi Nakamoto February 15, 2009 at 16:42

Sepp Hasslberger wrote:

Could there be synergies with bitcoin?

http://opencoin.org/

Could be. They’re talking about the old Chaumian central mint stuff, but maybe only because that was the only thing available. Maybe they would be interested in going in a new direction.

A lot of people automatically dismiss e-currency as a lost cause because of all the companies that failed since the 1990’s. I hope it’s obvious it was only the centrally controlled nature of those systems that doomed them. I think this is the first time we’re trying a decentralized, non-trust-based system.