Quote:
Originally Posted by dcortez
although as I am now looking at exchanges, I see more similarities with central banking than I expected.
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Because platforms like Coinbase (and all others) are exactly that... centralized platforms. Basically just a web interface to multiple tokens wallets linked to your account.
You don't need that though...
If you download the official Bitcoin wallet software to your PC and make a transaction, it's peer to peer, fully decentralized.
Next, download and install the open source BTC Payserver to your server, along with your Xpub key (extended public key) and you are ready to accept BTC transactions without any third party platform in the middle.
The Xpub key grants the Bitcoin Daemon on your server and the BTC Payserver script to create new wallet addresses on your behalf, but won't allow access to that actual funds (you need your private key for that, but obviously you don't want your private key stored on your server, that's why you have the BTC wallet client installed on your PC locally and can just transfer incoming funds from there).