Isn't "having a central authority" the very problem that Bitcoin solves? You can't just say Taler is better than BTC because it has a central authority. Central authority IS the problem. All central authorities are doomed to fail sooner or later BECAUSE they are centralized. Has a distributed authority ever failed? What am I not understanding?
I think the idea is that Bitcoin didn't actually solve that "problem" because its "solution" is still dependent on things controlled by central authorities (e.g. telecommunications and lots of electricity), but managed to misdirect many people's attention away from that failure.
I use scare quotes for "problem" because Bitcoin defining something as a problem doesn't make it one. For example, I could define seatbelts as a "problem" and "solve" that problem by making a car that omits them, but outside my idiosyncratic perspective I actually created more problems and didn't solve anything.
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I think the idea is that Bitcoin didn't actually solve that "problem" because its "solution" is still dependent on things controlled by central authorities (e.g. telecommunications and lots of electricity), but managed to misdirect many people's attention away from that failure.
I use scare quotes for "problem" because Bitcoin defining something as a problem doesn't make it one. For example, I could define seatbelts as a "problem" and "solve" that problem by making a car that omits them, but outside my idiosyncratic perspective I actually created more problems and didn't solve anything.