Whenever we mention Bitcoin, there is one word that must be mentioned, and that is "decentralization." There are also posts in our forum discussing "Is Bitcoin really decentralized?". In my opinion, "decentralization" is the core thought of Bitcoin, and it is also the embodiment of the true Satoshi spirit. "Decentralized thinking" guides all Bitcoin believers to continue to move forward.
But what exactly is decentralization? Why can Bitcoin be decentralized? We can further think about these issues. In my opinion, we can think about the "decentralization" of Bitcoin from 7 different aspects.
1. Decentralization of system architecture
From a technical perspective, Bitcoin implements distributed data storage technology. This reflects the decentralization of Bitcoin from the technical architecture level. In the previous architecture system of Internet products, centralized servers were used for centralized management of data. But in the Bitcoin network, it turns a highly centralized center into a network system with many nodes distributed, and each node has all the data. Data management is peer-to-peer, and any node can become a phased center. When one or some nodes suspend service, it will not affect the normal operation of other nodes.Therefore, the decentralization of the Bitcoin system means that it does not have a centralized server, and data storage is distributed in the form of nodes. It presents the characteristics of openness, flatness, and equality, and no independent individual can tamper with or control the Bitcoin system.
2. Decentralization of currency issuance
In our reality, the currencies we use daily are issued by the central banks of various governments and are subject to the regulation of the central bank. When the central bank of the country has no power to restrain, over-issued currency has become the norm. But in the Bitcoin network system, there is no centralized central bank. The issuance of all bitcoins is decentralized and controlled by the bitcoin network. The total amount of Bitcoin is fixed, and the output is halved in four years. This is the most basic logic of Bitcoin issuance. Bitcoin has completely realized the decentralization of issuance.
3. Decentralization of miner access
In the Bitcoin network, miners are an important group, and miners maintain the accounting system of the entire Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin network is permission-free. Anyone who meets the conditions can join the Bitcoin mining community. There is no centralized organization that audits miners and decides who can and cannot mine. This achieves the decentralization of access for miners.
4. Decentralization of mining computing power
When miners from different regions of the world join the Bitcoin mining industry, miners can choose different models of mining machines and different types of CPU mining machines for mining. As long as miners can use their own mining machines to provide computing power for the Bitcoin network. At the same time, the Bitcoin network will automatically adjust the mining difficulty of the entire system according to changes in market computing power. This itself does not require any centralized organization to manage and audit, so I said that the computing power of Bitcoin mining is also decentralized.
5. Decentralization of asset management
In our daily lives, we use our country’s legal currency for daily payments or asset storage. But these funds are managed by centralized banks entrusted by the state. In many cases, banks can freeze our funds and assets for various reasons. However, in the Bitcoin network, Bitcoin is managed separately by each of us. As long as we have the private key of our Bitcoin wallet, no one can plunder our assets. We truly have our personal assets in our hands.
6. Decentralization of community governance
In our daily work, most of our country or our company exists in the form of centralized governance. But it is completely different in the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin does not have a centralized organization to manage the entire ecology, but exists in the form of a community. In this community, there are different stakeholders. There is a core developer group, a miner group, a Bitcoin whale holder group, and a Bitcoin retail holder group. There is no centralized organization to manage these stakeholders, but everyone uniformly abides by the consensus mechanism of the Bitcoin community and spontaneously participates in the construction of the Bitcoin community. No single individual or collective can fully control Bitcoin. If someone wants to upgrade the Bitcoin network, they need to get the consensus of different stakeholders in the community. If there is no consensus, it is easy to cause the division of the community. This is the decentralization of community governance.
7. Decentralization of social governance
As of now, the Bitcoin network has been operating stably for 12 years. In addition to the early experience of the miner fork, the Bitcoin community has also developed in a very stable manner in recent years. This also proves the feasibility of decentralized governance in the Bitcoin community. The decentralized governance of the Bitcoin community provides a model market for the decentralized governance of our entire human society. Now more and more blockchain projects are implementing decentralized governance practices in accordance with Bitcoin's ideas. When more and more economies begin to implement decentralized governance, it will trigger the entire society to transform to decentralized governance. This process may be very long, but we have seen this trend, and this trend is irreversible.
The above is some of my understanding of Bitcoin decentralization, and you can also express your thoughts.