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Bitcoin

There is much to be said about Bitcoin and why it was created. Many books have been written, much speculation was and is still being had in terms of Satoshi's "true" vision and motivation.3

Undoubtedly, there are certain values embodied in the Bitcoin system—certain opinions that are embedded in the code, expressing how things should be done and what should be avoided. Nothing makes this more clear than the announcement post of Bitcoin, written by Satoshi himself.

Below are some highlights that are particularly relevant:

I've developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin. It's completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust.

No central server. No trusted third party. Peer-to-peer (P2P), instead of client-server or master-slave.

Thanks to strong cryptography, trust in third parties can be eliminated. When possible, rely on cryptographic proof instead of trust. Trusted third parties should be eliminated because (a) they introduce friction and (b) they are security holes.1

We have to trust [banks] with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. [...] Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password protection to secure their files, placing trust in the system administrator to keep their information private. Privacy could always be overridden by the admin based on his judgment call weighing the principle of privacy against other concerns, or at the behest of his superiors.

Privacy. Admins that spy on you. Systems that are designed to spy on you. Unfortunately, it's almost non-existent in today's world of surveillance capitalism and dragnet surveillance.

While credit requires identity, money does not. When you can trust the money you don't have to trust the person. In Bitcoin, there are no persons; only pseudonymous identities. Identities that are generated cryptographically at virtually no cost.

With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless.

No middlemen. Secure and effortless. The reason why your browser will show you a green lock or a shield when a connection is encrypted is that privacy and security are two sides of the same coin. Without privacy, your physical security might be at risk.2 Without privacy, free thought and free speech are impeded.

The result is a distributed system with no single point of failure.

No single point of failure. No admins.That is one of the main value propositions of Bitcoin, and what makes it so resilient. This resiliency, and the fact that the users are in charge—and nobody else—is what sets Bitcoin apart. JoinMarket continues this philosophical approach: economic actors in a peer-to-peer system, no single point of failure.

JoinMarket

  1. Szabo, 2001. Trusted Third Parties Are Security Holes ↩

  2. Jameson Lopp, List of Known Physical Bitcoin Attacks ↩

  3. A selection of books is available in the Bitcoin and Cypherpunk History section of bitcoin-resources.com/books ↩