What is Bitcoin really?

[CIYAM]

With so many forum members concentrating on alt coins and "how to get rich quick" I thought I'd just post the main reason why I think Bitcoin is so important and why I was so interested in it (and still am).

The amazing invention is actually not being a digital currency or a payment system but in being a "non-trust" reliant public DB (subject to a >50% control).

Before Bitcoin such a thing never existed (that I am aware of) and the ramifications of this invention will far outweigh the silly arguments about what a Bitcoin should be worth or whether it needs to be subject to whatever laws.

We are already seeing exciting new projects that are based upon the underlying blockchain and I expect we'll be seeing a lot more to come.

For the *real* believers I think that the "blockchain" is what we have most to thank Satoshi for!

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[Melbustus]

Yes, agreed. An authoritative distributed record system not controlled by any single entity is a first in human history. Money is simply the first application (and a great way to trigger recognition and adoption for the whole concept). It enables decentralization of things that, for thousands of years prior, required an authoritative entity. It'll be very interesting to see how blockchain-style consensus systems are ultimately used.

[Carlton Banks]

I would really like to see the Certificate Authority system invoked in a distributed, p2p consensus style system. It has the potential to be more trustworthy, and also to present a lower entry barrier to smaller/newer web based organisations that cannot currently afford to pay subscriptions to the incumbent CA's. Reading about all the various methods that can be used to inject malicious code into website content of late, it would be very beneficial for all site operators to be able to give the end user some guarantee that they're browsing using the code that the site's devs actually wrote.