Sharing Inspiring Ideas Through Digital Media
Bitcoin’s decentralisation depends on ordinary people being able to participate independently in the network. But what happens as the demands of doing so increase? I explore the practical realities of running a node and ask whether decentralisation can survive if meaningful participation becomes progressively more difficult.
Bitcoin has no government, CEO or central authority — so what happens when its participants disagree? I explore the delicate balance between developers, miners, node operators, businesses and users, and ask where power really lies in a supposedly decentralised system.
For years, running my own Bitcoin nodes represented independence and decentralisation. Then a disagreement over changes to Bitcoin Core forced me to reconsider what running a node actually means — and ultimately, I decided to switch mine off.
