Quote:
Originally Posted by cam_girls
why is it peer to peer?
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Why are file-sharing applications peer to peer? So they can't be shut down. It also makes the network more robust.
You can't just take down one or two websites and take Bitcoin offline. Bitcoin is a software application that runs on hundreds of thousands of PCs (like yours) - all at once.
You'd have to fly all over the world and knock out all of them to stop Bitcoin from running. That, of course, is impossible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cam_girls
If you put a mirror at bitcoin.info and bitcoin.net
and run them on seperate servers in different countries
you could manage transactions using a website
with the same functionality and same security.
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That's the old way of thinking.
Bitcoin runs on a few hundred thousands of PCs around the globe. Each PC is a "mirror". The ledger of transactions is mirrored across all of the nodes like a bit torrent movie is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cam_girls
You don't need peer to peer to store the account
information in each users accounts.
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The system you are comparing this to is obsolete. Centralizing currency and power in one spot leads to corruption.
Let's say I ran the system you are proposing. What is stopping me from just creating money and putting it in my account? Nothing. Bitcoin's P2P model and cryptographic checking stops this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cam_girls
It's like using a courier to go from person A to person B
to tell them a phone number.
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Nope. Each Bitcoin node (a computer running the Bitcoin software) has it's own wallet file. You literally hold the coins on your own computer. There isn't a website that holds the coins for you. (With the small exception of MyBitcoin. It can hold your coins temporarily until you forward them off to some other place. Usually this is to the client running on your PC.)