Centralized or Decentralized - What are Your Thoughts?

While browsing the internet, looking at what seems to be the only thing I look at these days (cryptocurrency), I came across a Medium post that resonated strongly with me. If you want to read the original article, you can view it via this link.

The article talks about decentralized exchanges and how ironic it is that such a large majority of decentralized assets are held on centralized exchanges. I think it is important for people to recognize the power that decentralized exchanges provide compared to centralized exchanges.

Decentralized exchanges, unlike their counterparts, don't abide by the Know Your Customer regulations, allowing for much more anonymity. Of course, as an aspiring CPA I have to say you should always pay your taxes! However, if one wants to avoid paying taxes to a centralized government that uses the money to disempower its people, decentralized exchanges should be used as much as possible. This said, be careful to not throw around your personal identification if this is your intent. If your public key somehow gets linked to your personal identification, there is no hiding your transactions.

Additionally, decentralized exchanges provide much-needed protection from malevolent governments and other third party actors. As there is no central control point, it is impossible to take control of the entire system and/or seize all user's assets. The same can't be said about centralized exchanges which are susceptible to corrupt governments and hackers.

One thing the author mentioned I do, however, disagree with. He states that one downside to decentralized exchanges are their speed. Most everyone here can agree that not all decentralized exchanges are slow - just take a look at Bitshares! Bitshares can complete a transaction in just 1 second on average, that doesn't seem slow to me!

I would like to see what you guys think, thus I will leave you with a few questions:

1. Do you primarily use a centralized or decentralized exchange?
2. If you answered centralized what would it take for you to convert primarily to a decentralized exchange?
3. When, if ever, do you think we will see the masses transition to using decentralized exchanges?

I look forward to your comments, have a wonderful day!

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