Bitcoin: Is P2P a Big Deal For a Currency?

A currency has always been defined as a medium of exchange – its basically an accounting system. In that context, we have always had a central authority stand behind the currency – “this note is legal tender for ..”

So why is P2P a big deal for a currency? The answer is this: the existence of a central authority that issues money has the unintended side effect of placing too much power in the hands of a small group of people. How many times have you heard this term “when Greenspan sneezes …” –

Whether that is such a bad idea, is debatable. But it is not the right thing to do in any case. So what is really needed is a mechanism that says let us democratize that authority. let us be the authority ourselves.
In many ways, that is what Bitcoin is.