The Roman Emperor Problem: ASIC Manufacturer Mediation

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Bitcoin is a digital currency and the first application of the distributed public ledger technology known as blockchain. Digital currencies are susceptible to a weakness known as double-spending where in which the same single digital token is spent more than once. Due to this threat, the transfer of tokens needs to be verified against a ledger that codifies transactions. Traditionally, the ledger is held by a centralized third-party mediator such as a bank. Satoshi Nakamoto’s motivation behind Bitcoin was to forego fees charged by third-party mediators and neutralize their ability to reverse transactions. Bitcoin eliminated the need for a third-party mediator by creating a trustless, decentralized ledger that is distributed to many network nodes and is secured by a SHA-256 cryptographic Proof-of-Work (PoW) block-chain.