We considered using a centralized ledger. Using a decentralized database offers several advantages:

• Distributed organizational structure. With a centralized system, one organization (probably a foundation) would be responsible for the entire system. With blockchain, the community can give organizations grants without them relying on a central foundation that is vulnerable to political, legal, and cybersecurity threats among others.
• Freedom from censorship. A centralized organization would be pressured to restrict who they are giving grants to. Since Bolt is decentralized, the community can directly decide which projects to fund, even if the original founders disagree or are under pressure.
• Protection of anonymity. Multiple fintech companies outside of blockchain are consistently forced to destroy the privacy user's expect. On top of that, centralized systems with closed-source code are highly vulnerable to hacking attacks as brought into focus with the theft of data from credit rating agencies.
• Community governance. A distributed system of governance has several major advantages for Bolt. First, it give the community an investment in the project. Second, it allows the project to grow much faster than it could otherwise. Because Bolt is decentralized, anyone can start their own DFO and start offering grants.

Blockchain based systems do have major disadvantages, the biggest of which is transaction fees, speed, and scalability. That's why we're using the Block-Lattice; it is a gigantic improvement on previous technologies for projects like Bolt by making transactions feeless and essentially instant. The other disadvantage, public visibility of transactions, is resolved with the future tech of the Diamond Lattice.