Not screwing up decentralization early in the system's life is a high priority for me: It is utterly integral to the system's value proposition in a way that few other properties are,
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Decentralization is also central to other elements that we must improve to preserve Bitcoin's competitiveness as a worldwide, open and politically neutral money-- such as fungiblity.
I fully agree! For me it's pretty hard to understand that quite a few people seem to be unable to understand the primary importance of decentralization for Bitcoin being valuable. People, who claim that transaction capacity and fast growth are more important than decentralization do not really get the reason of why Bitcoin came into existence.
Today, you can already do fast, high capacity transactions via centralized electronic payment providers. You don't need Bitcoin for that. A decentralized Bitcoin will never be able to compete with centralized payment solutions in terms of efficiency. And it should not have this goal, because the essential competitive advantage of Bitcoin stems from the fact that in addition to the value-transfer service it provides it represents also a store of value. This store of value function and hence the competitive advantage is endangered by any action that diminishes Bitcoin's fungibility.
ya.ya.yo!