[p2p-research] Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency

[Michel Bauwens]

Thanks for sharing this initiative, I hope some of our more expert members
will intervene.

I have an extra request if possible, our pages on Japanese initiatives, I'm
assuming that is where you are based, though I could of course be wrong, are
still very undeveloped, so I'm wondering if you could not add a few of the
important open/free and commons oriented initiatives that you know about,
including your own.

See http://p2pfoundation.net/Japan

Michel

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 5:30 AM, Satoshi Nakamoto <satoshin at gmx.com> wrote:

> I've developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin.  It's
> completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because
> everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust.  Give it a try, or
> take a look at the screenshots and design paper:
>
> Download Bitcoin v0.1 at http://www.bitcoin.org
>
> The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's
> required to make it work.  The central bank must be trusted not to debase
> the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that
> trust.  Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it
> electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely
> a fraction in reserve.  We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them
> not to let identity thieves drain our accounts.  Their massive overhead
> costs make micropayments impossible.
>
> A generation ago, multi-user time-sharing computer systems had a similar
> problem.  Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password protection
> to secure their files, placing trust in the system administrator to keep
> their information private.  Privacy could always be overridden by the admin
> based on his judgment call weighing the principle of privacy against other
> concerns, or at the behest of his superiors.  Then strong encryption became
> available to the masses, and trust was no longer required.  Data could be
> secured in a way that was physically impossible for others to access, no
> matter for what reason, no matter how good the excuse, no matter what.
>
> It's time we had the same thing for money.  With e-currency based on
> cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman,
> money can be secure and transactions effortless.
>
> One of the fundamental building blocks for such a system is digital
> signatures.  A digital coin contains the public key of its owner.  To
> transfer it, the owner signs the coin together with the public key of the
> next owner.  Anyone can check the signatures to verify the chain of
> ownership.  It works well to secure ownership, but leaves one big problem
> unsolved: double-spending.  Any owner could try to re-spend an already spent
> coin by signing it again to another owner.  The usual solution is for a
> trusted company with a central database to check for double-spending, but
> that just gets back to the trust model.  In its central position, the
> company can override the users, and the fees needed to support the company
> make micropayments impractical.
>
> Bitcoin's solution is to use a peer-to-peer network to check for
> double-spending.  In a nutshell, the network works like a distributed
> timestamp server, stamping the first transaction to spend a coin.  It takes
> advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to
> stifle.  For details on how it works, see the design paper at
> http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
>
> The result is a distributed system with no single point of failure. Users
> hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each
> other, with the help of the P2P network to check for double-spending.
>
> Satoshi Nakamoto
> http://www.bitcoin.org
>
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>



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