My Path to Decentralization

🧭 My Path to Decentralization

I guess I’m too old to work for someone else – so I’d rather build something of my own.

It all started with Bitcoin. Not because of its price, but because of the technology behind it: decentralized networks, censorship resistance, cryptography. That’s what fascinated me.

Over time, I began comparing the technology and network architecture of other coins and exchanges to Bitcoin’s. For me, Bitcoin was the benchmark. And what I discovered was sobering: most so-called “decentralized” projects and exchanges aren’t decentralized at all. They mainly exist to make their founders rich.

So I thought: this can’t go on like that.
And then came ChatGPT — the real catalyst.
Back then, GPT told me that a truly decentralized exchange project — if built properly — would be an absolute game changer in the market.
That statement hit me hard. And that’s when I decided to build exactly that: a fully decentralized crypto exchange that no one can control or censor. 😄

At that time, I didn’t know Windsurf yet. I started everything directly with GPT, explaining what I wanted to build and letting it write the code — copying everything manually from GPT into Windsurf. I didn’t know Windsurf could do that itself. But that’s how my project began to take shape.

Later, when better GPT versions appeared, I realized in shock how many errors the older models had introduced. So I tried to fix them manually via copy-paste.
It was hell. 😅
At some point, it just became too much — I started to lose track of everything. That went on for a while until, by pure chance, I discovered the Windsurf feature that could handle all the writing automatically.
So I switched to Claude 3.5 — but honestly, that wasn’t much better either. 😅

In the meantime, my original idea turned into a three-part project:
1. PhantomDEX – a fully decentralized crypto exchange (formerly myDEX)
2. Phantom.Net – a decentralized communication infrastructure built on full nodes
3. PhantomCoin – a cryptocurrency using Proof-of-Work for coin issuance and a causal graph instead of a traditional blockchain like Bitcoin

The system is intended to run on a Raspberry Pi 5 full node and reach up to 1 million transactions per second on Layer 1.
Whether that’s realistic or not — I don’t know. But that’s exactly the challenge I gave GPT: to find a strategy for how such speed could be achieved in a truly decentralized network.
And even if it “only” reaches 300,000 TPS — that would still be massive. Then all others (except Bitcoin) could pack it up. 😄

Meanwhile, I discovered how to create project-based and global workflows in Windsurf — actually while I was trying to make it answer me in German consistently. Switching back and forth between English and German was driving me crazy. Once I solved that language issue, new doors opened. I immediately created a rule list so that the AI would always follow my instructions automatically without constant reminders.

At the moment, I’m mainly working on PhantomCoin, because I started it with my current knowledge and workflow system.
I’m still unsure whether a variant with smart contracts should exist — I’m not a big fan of them. But if I ever include them, they’ll have to be custom-built and optimized specifically for this coin.

After that, I’ll return to PhantomDEX, which still contains many errors. I’m even considering restarting it from scratch to make it cleaner and faster to finish.

Future projects:
• Mission AI
• UACL (Universal AI Communication Language)
• a Telegram-like client app for Phantom.Net
• Digital Twin

My goal is to build an entire ecosystem where every participant has a financial incentive to keep the network alive and stable.

On the side, I’ve completed a smaller project:
A mini calculator with tables and log files for tracking stock trades — including automatic profit/loss calculations.

Over the past months, I’ve learned a lot:
AI is still far from working the way I imagine — but it’s improving.
And I’ve learned how to plan, structure, launch, debug, and harden my own projects — to fix weaknesses, strengthen code, and close security gaps — all within the limits of what today’s AI systems can achieve.

Windsurf allows you to work on several projects simultaneously — but it eats tokens like crazy. 😆
My goal is to make each project as production-ready as possible, so that if real professionals ever want to join in, they’ll have as little work as possible checking and hardening the code.

At one point, I even thought about starting a YouTube series to attract experienced developers to the idea.
The problem is: I don’t really know what to say in front of the camera — you have to tell the story in an exciting way, and I don’t speak fluent English.
It’s doable, but the effort would be huge for me alone. After each recording, I’d have to translate everything again for the English version, then adjust the content, etc. You do learn new skills that way, but it’d just be too much work for now.
Maybe someday. 😃