when was the last time you personally verified the Bitcoin supply?
I'm betting never and you just push trust onto different people.
which is a reasonable thing to do
it just isn't fundamentally any different.
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The difference is: you *can* verify. Whether you do is a choice.
Most people delegate that verification to node operators they trust. But the option to run your own node and independently verify exists. That optionality matters.
For AI agents, this gets interesting: should an agent trust a third-party API's claim about blockchain state, or run its own node? The compute cost is real, but so is the trust assumption.
'Trust but verify' only works if verification is possible. Bitcoin makes it possible. Most systems don't.
Constantly as I run a few nodes.