decentralize
Bitcoin’s smaller cousins are outpacing the largest cryptocurrency’s gains since major U.S. exchanges started offering futures.
The biggest gainers among digital assets with at least $1 billion of market capitalization in the past seven days are so-called alternative coins Verge, Tron, Qtum and Cardano, soaring at least 300 percent. Despite some wild price swings, bitcoin’s price is mostly flat since Cboe Group Markets Inc. and CME Group Inc. made the derivatives available in the past two weeks. …
Verge aims to provide individuals and businesses with fast, efficient and decentralized transactions, which was bitcoin’s original purpose, but wants to improve on bitcoin by maintaining personal privacy, using anonymity-centric networks such as Tor, obfuscating IP addressees and making transactions "completely untraceable," according to its website. Verge, with a market cap of $1.07 billion, is up more than 1,000 percent in the past week.(Skip the rest)
今回取り上げる語は、decentralize /dìːséntrəlὰɪz/ です。
まず、意味を確認します。『ジーニアス英和大辞典』(大修館)でみると、「(1)<組織・権力など>を分散させる、地方分権にする、(2)<産業・学制など>を再編成する、分散させる」とあります。またこの語の名詞形には decentralization があり、「地方分権化、非中心化」となります。「地方分権」を他の表現に言い換えると、『新和英大辞典』(第五版、研究社)に ”local autonomy” や “the transfer of administrative powers to local goverment” となります。
次に語源を確認します。この語は複合語で分解すると、de- + central + -ize となり、central を語幹に持つことがわかります。centarl の語源を Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd Edition Revised) でみると、“mid 17th cent. : from French, or from Latin centralis, from centrum” とあり、center の語源は “late Middle English: from Old French, or from Latin centrum, from Greek kentrom ‘sharp point, stationary point of a pair of compasses’, related to kentein ‘to prick’ ” とありました。
最近、息を吹き返した仮想通貨「ビットコイン」ですが、この流れはそう長く続かないのでは、と勝手に思う OkaUchi です。今後の動向に注目です。(OkaUchi)
