In the beginning that was the only option. Direct peer-to-peer transactions are what bitcoin is all about. You never need a bank, an exchange, or any third party. They only exist because sometimes it makes more sense. For example exchanges facilitate easy transactions by connecting buyers and sellers, banks have vaults for holding you private keys. But no one is needed.
The original tx's also included your IP address, so much for anonymity
But I am a believe in the original anarchy of satoshi, and the libertarian bent of BTC, that said, I think NakamotaSAtoshi was a NSA caricature and that they never meant to give us anarchy or liberatarian power, but certainly the dream should live on
So NOW the MINERS no longer control BTC, now the mining-pool managers have all the power FACT
So now instead of instead of .lt. 50% consensus you have china asics running 90% or more of BTc mining, .. tell us more about dreams of our fathers, for I need sweet dreams for my nap
In the beginning a transaction was to be free not $50
The funny thing is that todays BITCOIN is like a bastard drunken child jeebus that wandered the desert 30 years and has returned and all these 'legacy parents' dont' see any change in their baby-jeebus
IMHO
1.) kill all the mining pools
2.) kill all the coinbase assholes (IRS-NSA-CIA ) that control exchanges, KYC and know his shoe size and condom preferences, ...
3.) kill the day trading of BTC where now today its no more than a casino for morons to play lotto
4.) make BTC anonymous with real secure private addresses, not tied to any public
5.) figure out how to stop rogue full-nodes that do nothing more than collect IP's for the GOV tax man
In summary, its not your grandmothers BTC anymore