In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper — a manifesto of decentralized money, promising the world freedom from banks and intermediaries. Today, 15+ years later, BTC has become a global phenomenon, but much of what was envisioned has not come to fruition.

We discuss what the creator of the first cryptocurrency failed to predict and what problems the Bitcoin whitepaper holds.

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Technical miscalculations

The whitepaper barely mentioned scalability: the throughput of Bitcoin is only ~7 transactions per second, which is catastrophically low for a global payment system. Fees during peak times reach tens of dollars, and transactions can take dozens of minutes to confirm.

Satoshi also mistakenly believed that mining would remain accessible to everyone. The phrase 'one CPU — one vote' quickly lost its meaning after the advent of industrial ASIC farms. Today, a large part of computational power is concentrated in the hands of a few mining pools.

Satoshi also mistakenly believed that mining would remain accessible to everyone. The phrase 'one CPU — one vote' quickly lost its meaning after the advent of industrial ASIC farms. Today, a large part of computational power is concentrated in the hands of a few mining pools.

Another problem is the astronomical energy consumption of the network, comparable to countries like the Netherlands. Satoshi did not foresee such issues.

Conceptual misconceptions

Bitcoin was conceived as 'anonymous digital cash', but in practice, BTC is transparent to the extreme. All transactions are public, and de-anonymization is possible thanks to analytical tools.

Moreover, the network did not eliminate intermediaries — centralized exchanges and wallets have taken the place of banks, controlling the circulation. Unlike the classical financial system, it is impossible to get your money back if you made a mistake with the address.

Economic model in question

Satoshi assumed that as the block reward diminished, miners would be 'fed' by transaction fees. But so far, they make up only a small portion of income. If fees are insufficient in the future, the network's security will be at risk.

A goal that seems unattainable

Bitcoin has not become a mass payment method. It is not widely accepted in stores, and there are many reasons for this, such as BTC's high volatility and the long time it takes to confirm transactions. Instead, cryptocurrency has turned into 'digital gold' — a tool for accumulation, investment, and speculation.

Instead of conclusions

The Bitcoin whitepaper became the starting point for a new era in finance. However, Satoshi's concept turned out to be naive in several key aspects. The network is functioning, ideas are alive, but the reality has proven to be much more complex. Bitcoin changed the world but has also changed itself — and not at all in the spirit of its creator's original intentions.

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