Burning down the house: bitcoin, carbon-capitalism, and the problem of trustless systems

摘要

Bitcoin is built to bypass governments, which can fail, and central banks, which can print and thereby devalue currency. In many ways it's designed to be money (a 'store' of value), versus a currency (backed by government fiat and people working and paying taxes). Bitcoin, therefore, cannot trust any centralized authority to keep its books. The transaction data is kept in the open-yet no one person or power can unilaterally add to or tamper with them.