Bitcoin: 5x Pillars of Decentralisation

3 min readSep 16, 2020

The Bitcoin protocol has been said to be “set in stone” from day one, but what does that actually mean & how?

The Bitcoin Protocol Is Like Numbers

Numbers have been described as the only universal language. The concept has been there from the beginning so the creative part was how they were expressed. Whether numbers are Roman numeral, Latin numerics or Hindu-Arabic the concept remains the same. This is what Satoshi Nakamoto meant when he said the Bitcoin Protocol is “set in stone”. The concept has always been there, it’s just that he was able to express it in the Bitcoin White Paper & apply it to digital technology.

This is why alterations to the protocol cannot be made because alterations simply will not work. Decentralisation & the value of the Bitcoin network has been listed and explained below in the most basic form:

5 Pillars of Decentralisation

Accountability — Satoshi designed Bitcoin with a chain of signatures to hold all users of the system to account. This way no one could do anything on the network that no one else would know about. This is what makes all users equal to one another.
Fixed Supply — Simply means no ONE can control it.
Locked Protocol — If it cannot be changed then no ONE can control it.
Infinite Scale — This means that there is always a new market to compete for.
Competition — This is essential for a decentralised network. If there is no competition in the form of an economic opportunity cost, there is simply collusion for self-interest and not for that of the network & its users. Without infinite scale capability, new market cannot be created & the only alternative is to take market share away from competitors, which leads to centralisation.

It’s the above 5 pillars that can never be altered. If they were to be altered then the system would be centrally controlled & utterly worthless.

3 Pillars of Network Value

Speed — of transitions (the faster the better)

Cost — of transitions (the cheaper the better)

Scale — the volume of transaction (the bigger the better)

If ever a truly decentralised system came along & out-competed the current network in either one of the 3 Network Value Pillars then migration would start & eventually take 100% of the market share.

The only protocol with the 5 pillars of decentralisation & the 3 pillars of network value in place is the protocol that Satoshi Nakamoto designed & described in his White Paper entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This protocol named Bitcoin Satoshi Vision is often referred to as Bitcoinˢᵛ & has the ticker symbol (BSV).

To understand why the Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin protocol is known as Bitcoinˢᵛ & has the ticker symbol BSV read my Medium article titled: “Bitcoin: A Tail of Blockchain BTC/BCH/BSV” linked here — https://medium.com/@sirtoshitv/bitcoin-a-tail-of-blockchains-x3-eebb136457c7

Satoshi Nakamoto had a vision. That vision was Bitcoin. Bitcoin is Satoshi’s Vision. Bitcoin is BSV.