The Evolution of Money - Decred Fundamentals

@: 1. Decred and the evolution of money

A financial meltdown

In 2008 the world was subject to a Financial meltdown that was thought to have started in the US housing market. The adverse consequences of this event caused governments and central banks across the world to intervene with bailouts to the same entities that caused the crisis. At the same time leaving the masses to foot the bill, reducing their standard of live and financial security.

In subsequent years we have seen these decisions play out in full and at every turn the vast majority of the worlds population has been left out in the cold and the wealth divide has grown exponentially.

An alternative to the financial system

The solution to the Financial meltdown of 2008 was to inflate the money supply and devalue the currencies, the world needed an alternative or an equilibrium to this solution. An opposite to the cause would be a fixed supply that could not be inflated, stolen or devalued by central entities. A currency that is governed in the interests of the coin holder and secured without the need for a third party.

The peer to peer money solution

In 2009, the first Bitcoin block, known as the Genesis block was mined, which contained the message that would signal the intention of the project - “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."

The foresight to see the direction the financial system was headed was nothing short of miraculous and to develop a solution to the problem less than a year later was perfect timing. At last, and probably for the first time in history, the masses have a global currency with a fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins. Most importantly an open sourced alternative to the legacy financial system to store wealth.

The value of Bitcoin being released as an open sourced project meant that whether the project was successful on not, others would be able to pick up the mantle at any point in the future and drive the development in the direction required for the time. This was a truly selfless act and a gift to the world.

The solution is software

Twelve years on and Bitcoin is running as expected but the cracks are starting to show. Essentially, blockchain technology is software that comprises - a client, Network connections and a distributed database known as a blockchain. Each of these parts needs to be maintained to keep the protocol secure and working as intended.

One of The biggest issues Bitcoin faces is with conflict resolution and the inability to solve problems and upgrade without fracturing its community. This was played out in full in 2017’s block-size debate, that gave way to the birth of several Bitcoin chains including BTC, BCH and BSV.

Without a decentralised and verifiable form of governance these community fractures are likely to continue long into the future. Arguably, Bitcoin was never meant to solve all of these mundane problems but instead its mission was to give the world a blueprint that it could take forward and improve overtime.

Decred and the evolution of money

In 2013, After building out a full node implementation of Bitcoin called BTCd with a tool set called BTCSuite, Company 0 , used their developments to start a new blockchain project that would included the best bits of bitcoin with a best in class governance system. In the eyes of the team building governance from the beginning would allow the project to develop long into the future.

At its core Decred improves on the original design of Bitcoin by Implementing -

• A max supply of 21 million coins
• A hyper secure hybrid POW / POS solution that makes both miners and coin holders responsible for the security of the chain
• A Governance model that aligns majority voting with the direction of the project, which in turn makes Decred fork resistant
• Decred improves Incentive alignment by including Miners, Stakeholders and the Decred treasury in the mining rewards
• Decred has privacy that doesn’t obscure supply audibility and has a high throughput by aligning ticket buying with privacy mixing.
• and finally Decred has a decentralised treasury to help fund all areas of the project. Meaning that it doesn’t rely on outside funding that could manipulate the long term goals of the project.

In a nutshell Decred has picked up the peer to peer digital money mantle and has continued the mission of developing a fairer system for all.