Derivations and homomorphisms in commutator-simple algebras

We call an algebra $A$ commutator-simple if $[A,A]$ does not contain nonzero ideals of $A$. After providing several examples, we show that in these algebras derivations are determined by a condition that is applicable to the study of local derivations. This enables us to prove that every continuous local derivation $D\colon L^1(G)\to L^1(G)$, where $G$ is a unimodular locally compact group, is a derivation. We also give some remarks on homomorphism-like maps in commutator-simple algebras.