Journal Article

Bitcoin’s Decentralized Decision Structure


Abstract: With the introduction of bitcoin, the world got not just a new currency, it also got evidence that a decentralized control structure could work in practice for institutional governance. This Commentary discusses the advantages and disadvantages of centralized and decentralized control structures by examining the features of the bitcoin payment system. We show that while the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network \\"democratizes\\" payments, it is not obvious that the approach increases the equity or efficiency of markets or that the costs of the decentralized control structure won?t outweigh the benefits in the long run.

Keywords: cryptocurrency;

https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-ec-201912

Access Documents

File(s): File format is text/html https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-ec-201912
Description: Full text

Authors

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Part of Series: Economic Commentary

Publication Date: 2019

Issue: July

Order Number: 12