🤔 [Analysis] Bitcoin Runs on Paranoia. That’s the Beauty of It. - Elaine Ou

Credible threats of violence have protected markets and financial systems for most of human history. But public blockchains replace these centralized pressures with a measure of paranoia shared by every network participant. Although a new and imperfect model, a decentralized network’s value comes from confidence in its decentralization. In other words, a degree of universal distrust and self-reliance, not violence, secures public blockchains.