[2017-07-10] BS: Bitcoin's central appeal could also be its biggest weakness

Bitcoin's central appeal could also be its biggest weakness

http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/bitcoin-s-central-appeal-could-also-be-its-biggest-weakness-117071000103_1.html

Bitcoin reached a huge new peak in value in June 2017, when one unit of the virtual currency was worth US$2,851 (£2,208), up from around US$600 just a year earlier. More than 10m people worldwide are now thought to own bitcoin and more than 100,000 merchants accept it for goods (not counting all those using it to sell drugs and other illegal items on the black market).

Part of bitcoin’s appeal for many of its users is the lack of centralised control or regulation by any government or bank. Instead it relies on a technology known as blockchain to underpin and secure transactions. But research my colleagues and I have conducted suggests that the lack of any social trust in the way blockchain operates poses a challenge for bitcoin’s further spread.