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Comment by colordrops | Hacker News Reader

Individuals can still transact without interference if they wish, and no one can arbitrarily issue new bitcoin at a whim, so the important properties of bitcoin are still intact. The vision never included anything about preventing middlemen from using the blockchain. Bitcoin is about adding degrees of freedom, not removing them.

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This is exactly it. Just like with the Internet... you may choose to transact directly, but if you choose not to the fundamental capability of direct transaction (or direct IP) still remains. Choosing an institution to hold your coins leaves open the option to withdraw your coins and put them somewhere else, perhaps even your own personal wallet on your own personal node if you so wish.

The dream of a micro-payment platform remains to be realized, however. The gains in Bitcoin have been towards freedom, but not efficiency.

> and no one can arbitrarily issue new bitcoin at a whim

Anyone can fork it though. And the interesting part, as seen for bitcoin cash, is that the total market cap of the fork + original chain right after the fork was greater than the value pre-fork. You can technically argue that this doesn't amount to creating new bitcoins, but for all practical purposes the total amount of digital tokens did increase.

An often overlooked detail of crypto currencies is that the miners are in fact acting as the "central banks" in terms of controlling currency policy.

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