What Satoshi really did.
This article is intended as foundation/primer to explain to someone who is non technical to give them a basis to understand exactly why Bitcoin is a miraculous achievement.
What is the most basic difference between a physical asset, and a digital asset?
The most simple difference is that a digital asset can be duplicated, cloned or otherwise copied and the copy is identical to the original.
Digital assets such as images, audio, text and programs can be copied as many times as you want, and are indistinguishable and just as useful as the original.
A digital asset is information that can be duplicated and broadcast and repeated.
Digital assets ARE NOT UNIQUE, nor are they scarce.
A physical asset is intrinsically linked to the 3d space and matter that it occupies and/or exists of.
A physical asset can NOT be duplicated 100% identically. There are many prints, photos and copies of the Mona Lisa, but only the original is a priceless masterpiece. A record signed by John Lennon, cannot be copied in its entirety. The music on it of course can, but the physical item, with the autograph and perhaps personal message, there is only the specific one.
But wait, I know some digital things that are unique?
You do? Name them.
My video game character on World of Warcraft! No one has the same name as me and I am the only one with the "Unique contest item prize weapon". I am unique.
You are correct, your video game character IS completely unique.
But this is only possible because you have a centralized authority that maintains its uniqueness.
Blizzard will not allow another character with the same name and that sword to exist. Blizzard solely enforces this.
Couldn't Blizzard change their minds and allow others to have the same name and award the previous unique prize to others just like you?
Ok, how about my email address? My email address (supergreatname@gmail.com) is unique and belongs only to me!
Again, you are correct it is unique … but it does not belong to you.
You rely on trusting Google as the central authority for Gmail to ensure your email address is unique.. And you rely on Google to act honestly and give only you access to this email address.
Google can also revoke your ownership of this email address at any time, just as Blizzard can disable, delete, or give your account to another person. Or create additional identical digital assets to distribute to others.
Digital assets can only exist uniquely, while being managed by a central authority.
READ THIS AGAIN!
Digital assets can only exist uniquely, while being managed by a central authority.
Participating in systems managed by central authorities means putting your trust in these organizations.
This also means, investing your time and effort in any system that is centrally managed means that at the whim of the organization, you may lose access or the ability to participate in this system.
In the previous two examples the trust is given to private corporations, Google and Blizzard.
Where else important have you given your complete trust into… knowingly or unknowingly?
Did you know that money is both a digital and physical asset? Who do you give your trust to for your money?
In the USA: The Federal Reserve
In Europe: European Central Bank
In general, putting your trust in centralized authorities is a fact of life. But...
Centralized authorities can be a terrible, terrible thing..
Why are centralized authorities a bad thing?
Inherently, generally, they are not.
Centralized authorities bring a lot of convenience to peoples lives. Allowing someone else to manage the details of running Facebook so you can send cat photos to your grandma easily, instead of having to run your own webserver, create your own website and phone app, fix bugs, pay hosting bills etc...
At some point, we all rely on some form of central authority to make our lives easier.
But people suck. And behind every single central authority, there are some very corruptible, greedy, unethical... Normal People.
Certain things have an acceptable risk to give your trust to a Normal Person to conduct.
Hungry? Trust in your local restaurants staff to provide an edible meal. No problem.
Responsibly manage monetary policy on a platform of promises on a foundation of debt where the average person sacrifices something real, their time and energy and the money managers can press a button and print or duplicate unlimited quantities, with no way for the public to verify policy and reality agree?
Hmm history tells us no..
What Bitcoin did?
Well, actually Satoshi Nakamoto did it. Satoshi solved an previously impossible problem.*
Satoshi created a way to make digital assets verifiably unique and unduplicatable without using a central authority that ANYONE can verify to be true.
Simply explained, Satoshi figured out a way to create unique, non-duplicatable digital assets without relying on a central authority to keep track of each digital asset's uniqueness that everyone can participate, rely, trust and verify its correctness.
Satoshi then applied this idea to money, and called it Bitcoin.
This concept and solution in general terms, is now called, blockchain**.
* The problem was called the Byzantine Generals problem and was a mathematical model of how to have participants in a system, prevented from cheating each other without having to rely on a external referee.
**Blockchain is not to be confused with Blockstream. Blockstream is a group of corrupt assholes who are trying to destroy Bitcoin.
So what is Satoshi's true gift?
The true gift Satoshi gave us humans collectively is control of our money away from the few back to the many, with no compromises, no kidding.
Bitcoin (BCH) (now called Bitcoin Cash) provides all the conveniences of modern currency and banking systems, and much more. Bitcoin (BCH) excludes no one, and lets anyone who chooses to verify, and don't blindly trust any part of the entire monetary system themselves.
Next article coming soon..
BTC is not Bitcoin (And why propaganda is the downfall of humanity.)
