How Are Service Providers NOT The Middle-Man?

[Vector]

Service providers (Comcast, Verizon, At&T, etc.).

Are they not the new banks? They provide the means for ALL transaction and generation.

If they wanted, they could identify the BitCoin protocol signature (or BotCoin trading websites), and forbid it on their networks. Or even charge for it. They have complete rights over the network. And because of the overhead of their immense infrastructure, a new company can't just pop in and offer an alternative.

[benjamindees]

Utilities that string wires all over the place on land they don't own, tend to have a somewhat precarious position with respect to extracting large rents for the use of said wires.

[FooDSt4mP]

There's a fiber optic line running through my parent's back yard, but they can only get dialup and satellite.  I guess that's what Governor Manchin meant when he said he wanted broadband run to every property by the end of 2010.

[Stardust]

If the providers turn against Bitcoin we can always use Tor/I2P, or even create our own P2P internet (free & independent).

[gigitrix]

Electricity suppliers are also middle men. Do you think your government is going to cut the power?

[Vector]

We are paying a monthly fee to a large corporation, in order to gain internet access, in order to generate and exchange Bitcoins.

How is this considered decentralized?

[rezin777]

We are paying a monthly fee to a large corporation, in order to gain internet access, in order to generate and exchange Bitcoins.

How is this considered decentralized?

Tell me which single point you can remove to bring the entire thing to a halt.

[DeiBellum]

There's a fiber optic line running through my parent's back yard, but they can only get dialup and satellite.  I guess that's what Governor Manchin meant when he said he wanted broadband run to every property by the end of 2010.

You should convince your parents to do some "landscaping" and when the people come out to hook everything back up convince them to run a fork to the house and to get service.

[evoorhees]

We are paying a monthly fee to a large corporation, in order to gain internet access, in order to generate and exchange Bitcoins.

How is this considered decentralized?

It's decentralized because everyone is paying to different companies, in different nations, and with different goals, associations, and objectives. A centralized system is something like PayPal - if that company were shut down, PayPal is dead. Tell me which company, organization, person, or even nation could be shut down to stop Bitcoin?  I suppose it's susceptible to a nuclear holocaust, but if that happens we have more important things with which to concern ourselves. Like the zombies, etc.