There is NO Central Authority – Like the Federal Reserve – Behind Bitcoin

[thomasonil]

One of the primary features of Bitcoin – if you haven’t already figured it out – is that it isn’t controlled by anyone. There is no central authority, no government, no Federal Reserve, and no central bank of any type. It’s controlled by the people who use the system.

That status is both positive and negative. On the positive side, the value of Bitcoins can’t be manipulated by central bank activity, the way it’s done with traditional currencies. And we already covered that there is no delay in monetary transfer due to passing through clearinghouses. As well, the absence of spending limits give Bitcoin a clear advantage over credit cards.

On the negative side, no central authority means that there is no one to appeal to in the case of a transaction gone wrong. Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by users, which means that their value is set by the market. This means that their value will fluctuate, and could even crash all the way to zero. After all, there’s no central bank to prop up the value of this kind of currency.

But i think the positive sides of bitcoin are increasing day by day...i like the process of transactions without any third party or banks, which helps us to earn the maximum numbers.

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[Merovius]

This is a good point about bitcoin -- the lack of any central banking authority is actually one its main features and the one that initially attracted my interest. Because the supply is limited and it is free from the Federal Reserve's "easing" and "tightening" cycles it is able to serve some of the functions of precious metals like gold and silver in that people can buy it as a hedge against inflation of the national fiat currency and maintain some purchasing power in the event of a financial crisis. It can also be used to get around capital controls like limitations on bank account withdrawals or restrictions on the use of cash for larger purchases.

The main problem, except perhaps the volatility in its exchange rate versus other currencies, is that people do need to be educated in how to actually use bitcoin because as the original post mentions, there is no authority to appeal to (at least not within the payment gateway itself) if a user makes a mistake or gets scammed on a transaction somehow. In this respect other payment processors like PayPal still offer more apparent security and buyer protection.

[AGD]

Most of us are here exactly because of this.

From the Bitcoin whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

6.
Incentive
By convention, the first transaction in a block is a special transaction that starts a new coin owned
by the creator of the block.  This adds an incentive for nodes to support the network, and provides
a way to initially distribute coins into circulation, since there is no central authority to issue them.
The steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins is analogous to gold miners expending
resources to add gold to circulation.  In our case, it is CPU time and electricity that is expended.
The incentive can also be funded with transaction fees.  If the output value of a transaction is
less than its input value, the difference is a transaction fee that is added to the incentive value of
the   block   containing   the   transaction.     Once   a   predetermined   number   of   coins   have   entered
circulation, the incentive can transition entirely to transaction fees and be completely inflation
free.
The   incentive   may   help   encourage   nodes   to   stay   honest.     If   a   greedy   attacker   is   able   to
assemble more CPU power than all the honest nodes, he would have to choose between using it
to defraud people by stealing back his payments, or using it to generate new coins.  He ought to
find it more profitable to play by the rules, such rules that favour him with more new coins than
everyone else combined, than to undermine the system and the validity of his own wealth.

[adChain]

One thing I often think about in terms of the wild volatility Bitcoin is subjected to is if in the future when the 21 million BTC max supply is fully distributed and there is a market cap that is much larger (think on par with a national fiat currency) will the price be much more stable. Most likely it will, it much harder to move the needle much when market caps are huge, as long as there is no obvious flaw in the tech or major mass exodus either into or out of the currency.

[Mometaskers]

It's the lack of governing body that has made it easy for the Ponzi schemers to adopt bitcoin. After all, the government is not likely to run after them anyway. "That should teach them a lesson not the drop fiat" they might say. 

But if you plan to just keep your bitcoin and hold it, the only danger would be price drops and that has nothing to do with the lack of oversight.

[hatshepsut93]

On the negative side, no central authority means that there is no one to appeal to in the case of a transaction gone wrong. Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by users, which means that their value is set by the market. This means that their value will fluctuate, and could even crash all the way to zero. After all, there’s no central bank to prop up the value of this kind of currency.

Unlike with centralized systems, transactions in Bitcoin never go wrong for some technical reasons, there are no bugs that make people lose money, transactions always go exactly where they are supposed to. All unwanted transactions are caused by human mistakes and malicious actions, which can be solved through learning of Bitcoin software and net security. In fact, it's much more efficient to have some people lose their money due to their own mistakes, rather than installing systems that increases costs for all users universally, regardless whether they do mistakes or not. And if you read Satoshi's whitepaper, this is exactly one of his initial arguments for creating Bitcoin.

[bitcoindusts]

this post should be a sticky

Thread that were created way earlier than OP's post and have the same concept and even a deeper thought were already stickied so there is no need to sticked this  thread.  You just need to explore the forum and see for yourself several same thread as this. 

Anyway, being decentralized is the beauty of Bitcoin, the negative thing about it is that since there is no central authority, it needs consensus on every upgrade and decision it makes, making the process slower.  You can see how it delays the scaling upgrade of Bitcoin due to other faction contradicting the idea of Segwit implementation.

[Zimbabwecoin]

As much as I like Bitcoin it has been an expensive learning experience in losing BTC to untrustworthy exchanges and other scams. I am slowly learning though

[franky1]

op is a noob, trying to preach to the converted.. give him a few months and he will start to see what the BScartel are upto

advice to OP:
no point trying to advertise the old ethos of 8 years ago to people that have been around for years and seen how things have changed.

[equator]

op is a noob, trying to preach to the converted.. give him a few months and he will start to see what the BScartel are upto

advice to OP:
no point trying to advertise the old ethos of 8 years ago to people that have been around for years and seen how things have changed.

He got so much enthusiast by knowing about bitcoin that is why started the thread with bitcoin details. It happens when we come to know about some thing which we like most.

[finaleshot2016]

This is the greatest advantage for all users in the bitcoin community, since it is decentralized no government can control bitcoin because if it happens, the fees will be more higher and there are tax for those companies with ICOs. Another things is the transaction is very essential and no system errors happen when having a transaction.

[Mike Mayor]

Dude so you know how a bank works ? Why do you think they stabalize the market ? The manipulate it not stabalize it. They there to make money no help us.

You say because BTC is not centralized you can do nothing about it ? Really ? It's actually called theft. Something of yours was taken and not given back. This is theft. As far as I know theft is a crime on all countries. Please stop making statements as if they fact. So many people act like they know everything they simply do not. Btw if you couldn't Legally do anything then why do you think fraud exchange owners are being arrested ? If I steal your bitcoin by selling you something that you never get then I will be going to jail or paying a hefty fine. Theft is theft it doesn't matter what it is or how small. Someone could steal a shell necklace that is worthless bit to you it is not since your dead father gave it to you. So of the she'll is stolen are you telling me that's not the just because it has no material value ?

[eaLiTy]

I can understand the enthusiasm of the OP and we are here in this bitcoin community is simply because of this feature and so is the reason it is called a revolutionary form of currency  Countries around the world will try to control the users but it wont be a cent percent success as it is the only form of global payment system that cannot be shut down,it is like the internet.

[GreenBits]

what the op is describing is centralization. in the global political state of affairs, the common man seeks to rail against the perceived forces that financially oppress him, the current iteration is the global banking cartel. why they are responsible for there fair bit of this tale, the blame does not rest sole on their shoulders. it is the distribution of money (usually due to legislation passed by your respective local/federal government) that dictates the flow of capital to the people. centralization is a pretty good idea if you a dealing with a fiat. with the security of a nation in your hands, you cannot allow your fiat to devalue if you can help it, and by having actual control of the supply, you can d hard but necessary things to make sure your currency maintains its value.

as we have seen, rumors can shoot the pants off of the price of bitcoin. would you want you governments value, and yours by proxy, to lose 30%+ plus just because of a rumor? that government wouldnt get far

[Sasuke102001]

Yea Bitcoin is decentralized form currency which means the government has no control over it and people that use Bitcoin stay anonymous and can still complete transactions. When it comes to Bitcoin all the transactions are completed without any problem and reaches where it should reach, there are no bugs or technical issues so people don't lose their money.The central authorities in my country which circulates and have our money deposited with them have technical issues sometimes or bugs due to which during transaction people lose their money and they do not take any responsibility for it.We also have to pay our taxes from our money that we earn when it gets transferred to the banks because the government has control over it but that is not the case with bitcoin. SO Bitcoin is good which has no central authority controlling it.

[InBTC4years]

It also means no one can just print more and push the value lower to make it more appealing to do business with the countries that hold the cheap currency. Which is one way Bitcoin can help people control their own net worth.