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1 results

  • Is Bitcoin a decentralized payment mechanism?

  • William J. Luther, Sean Stein Smith
  • Journal:
    Journal of Institutional Economics / Volume 16 / Issue 4 / August 2020
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    20 March 2020, pp. 433-444

  • We make a distinction between centralized, decentralized, and distributed payment mechanisms. A centralized payment mechanism processes a transaction using a trusted third party. A decentralized payment mechanism processes a transaction between the parties to the transaction. A distributed payment mechanism relies on the network of users to process a transaction on a shared ledger. We maintain that bitcoin is neither a centralized nor a decentralized payment mechanism. It is, instead, a distributed payment mechanism. We then consider decentralized and centralized aspects of the broader bitcoin payment space.