Bitcoin Forum

A centralized cryptocurrency is usually safer for its users in terms of hacking, but how about possible Government restrictions?

Are they easier to ban?

If it's centralized then it's definitely not safer because it has a singular point of failure. If a government decides to shit them down, they're gone. Clearly a decentralized model is more beneficial.

Obviously not. The thing that makes Bitcoin secure is that its network is distributed everywhere. So a government would have to turn down every Bitcoin node and miner to "turn off the network".

Meanwhile, if a service is centralized, it's way easier for a government to target its single point of failure and turn off everything (i.e like they do with websites and darknet services);

https://i.imgur.com/B7Pbdbq.png


So if you destroy the centre of A then all gone but for B you will need to destroy each and every node. For me A is easier and the same for others.

Update:
I took it from google and now realised it has been presented wrong. Just updated it.

PS: For readers, previous image was this one (https://i.imgur.com/iwCsLgH.png) (<==== wrong one)

Pretty much the same as: Are banks safe? or Is Paypal safe?

When it comes to centralized systems, it all comes down to their integrity. If the developers are trustworthy, endorsed by the Government/prominent users, it could be safe from a ban.

Governments aren't banning coins based on their design.
Did you mean: "Can centralized cryptocurrencies survive even when the Government bans it?"

BTW, the idea is a great alternative to classic systems that requires more solid security like (Central) banks.

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@mdayonliner (B) has a central body too, where did you get that image?
If those were Bitcoin Nodes, it will look like a haywire. (each dot should have a line connected to each of all the dots)

I do not know where you came this information, but "don't put all your eggs in one basket " proves your mistake.
When the platform is central, this means that any breakout will result in substantial losses and intensification of protection on the central point.
Just like banks, one hacks every few years, but its losses need decades. Also, it creates a hole in the protection system.

Yes, take this site as example https://thepiratebay.org/

I think this is the most nuanced answer here.

While I'm absolutely a crypto supporter, it bewilders me how people here can sometimes parrot lines about centralization as this untenable thing when it's how we've been living in our modern lives. Definitely many things can be improved via distributed, trackable, and trustless processes where we cut out unnecessary brokers and middle men. But let's not pretend we live in some nightmare world where no one is accountable today.

Just like with any technology, time will tell which blockchain application and cryptocurrencies add real value to the world.

I get the feeling that governments would be able to shut down decentralized networks anyway. Remember, they are governments. Resources are more like a way of counting for them, not a limiting factor.

All they have to do is give ISPs the order to block out certain data transactions and voila, it is all gone. I remember at university people had their internet connections blocked for using BitTorrent. That was only a University IT department doing it, not a full blown government!

For the moment, while governments are not stopping cryptocurrencies and so on, then decentralized crytpocurrencies are safe so long as the developers want them to be. If everyone is running your software without question then it should be quite easy to insert bugs which give you centralized control. Even if you don't want to, accidental bugs can lead to significant lacks of safety.

Many projects put their codes on github, but I wonder if this is really relevant. Most people can't read code and most don't bother to read code that isn't their own.


Crypto is safe for the moment because of the philosophy of crypto, and nothing else. But for now it is enough :D :D

Great answer to share! Visuals are always easy to understand and the one you posted explains everything itself, thank you very much!

thats not true, centralised currencies where the norm thorughhout human history and will continue to be that.

main reason -> just look at the decentral ones they all are just wasting ressources they are not creating value sources the society can live off,

bitcoin and other decentralised mined coins are just like ghost spoking throught he media, in the end they make everyone poorer.

but some centralised cryptocurrencies are extremly aweful like ripple that is mainly in existance so banksters can scam the others.

central cryptocurrency will come and they will be in usage.

ethereum is for example a very successful central cryptocurrency.

others:

iota, cardano, neo, waves

get used to it

Having a centralized currency would be not safer than decentralized ones because when the one who controls the currency will be attack then all of the system will be affected while in decentralized ones, even if one is hack, there is still a bunch who controls the system so it cannot be easily destroyed. As for Government restriction, if they decide to make the centralized currency then they can just easily shut it down since they are the own who controls it as oppose to decentralize ones wherein no one has full control of the currency.

Since centralized cryptocurrency is controlled, they are easier to ban as well. If some of the countries would like to oppose the current decentralized cryptocurrencies then I think they would create their own cryptocurrency to combat it and only allow its citizens to use it. Centralized cryptocurrency is just analogous to fiat currency anyway since government has control of it.

Digital currencies are usually decentralized and it's generally much safer than centralized. Because, cryptocurrency has been designed by solving math problems based on cryptography.

Centralized cryptocurrency meaning involving a third party which can be played by a bank or government (human) which usually consists of several regulations and certain limitations so that it can be said to be far from efficiency and effectiveness. So its existence can be said easier to be prohibited.

That's what I call the view of a leftist. "Everything has to create value for the society, we should all be working for the common good, stop wasting resources you unproductive waste of space, go work, do something for others!" :D
You guys should wake up and realize that socialism is a cancerous system. You're not in the position to be telling people what they can waste or not and how they should live, it's their choice, not your dictatorship. If I want to waste my money on something or be unproductive and sleep all day, it's my choice.

Why don't you guys focus on the resources that you are wasting every day by leaving appliances on standby, forgetting to turn off the lights when you exit a room, using toilet paper instead of washing your butt with water every time you take a dump. This argument about BTC being unproductive is simply dumb.

Centralized cryptocurrency are best option when it come to hacking and theft but it isn't the best option if the government or the regulators intervene and anything can happen they does cause they have the power to control the cryptocurrency which is why Satoshi believes it better if bitcoin is decentralized so that masses,the mid and higher classes can both enjoin the system.

centralised cryptocurrencies are more useful than decentral ones that only waste ressources and make everyone poorer,

they are inevitable people will want those

all crypto curency decentralized not centralized
maybe only xrp coin centralized, centralized coin is not good because all coin still have and control founder

ohm jes well then it is also socialist to not surpress bitcoin propaganda in the internet, people should defend themselves from living under a civilisational tooth decay that bitcoin is.

its also socialist, to not confiscate miners or not to demand extra taxes from so called "miners"

why is "bitcoin" the currency of the future and not other 23000 cryptocurrencies accepting bitcoin as it is also socialist, as bitcoin pretends also to be socialist by everyone is able to mine it, dening the fact of the pyramid it is.

all that was said is true but they are forgetting the biggest risk of all! you are talking about money, a currency that is centralized and is in control of one person or a group of people who are not even running a regulated or legal thing. they can take your money from you and there is nothing you can do about it.
for example Ripple foundation can easily put their hand in any user's wallet and take their XRP for themselves. you can't do anything about it since XRP is not a currency according to law and it is something they own and just let you use temporarily. and they actually have done it at least once to one of their own developers! they simply robbed his coins.

you see it is not about government, hacking, banning,... it is all about "control" being in hands of shady people who can abuse that power any time they want.

Well, I think that all these threats and attacks by the governments do not adversely affect on the digital currencies. In fact, in the last period, there was a collective ban ( Twitter, Facebook, Google..) and certainly those decisions taken   by governments  (pressure), but fortunately, this did not affect negatively on the decline in currency prices. Actually, in this era, no one can destroy Bitcoin and even there will be  coalition of all governments, but will not be able to do that because Bitcoin is very secure.

On the other hand, I think that the governments will lose hope of those goals (destroying Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general), and it is expected that if they will find a solution the issue of not controlling the financial transactions for digital currencies and other problems, then it is certain that there will be a global recognition of Bitcoin in most of the countries as a legal currency.

What is that you're rambling about? Actually suppressing propaganda has been best used by the socialism. Goebbels was the master of this trade.
If your opinion about BTC is that it's a pyramid scheme (which was disproved multiple times), we don't really have much to talk about because you most likely are purposely trolling. I'll just live this here for you:

Bitcoin doesn’t generate returns. It’s just software. The price of Bitcoin is directly correlated to its scarcity and demand. The demand is not forced on others, nor do Bitcoin’s biggest proponents go around asking people for money and telling them to invest more into Bitcoin. New users that join the Bitcoin network don’t fund the older users with new money. Not at all. It’s just plain lazy to make this assertion.

Governments are not a real supporter of crypto they actually want to burst the crypto or want to use the blockchain security technologies. Other than that, they would not give any shit to any cryptos. So far Ripple is one of the famous and many people choice in centralized cryptos.
If ripple araise you all find the heavy drop in crypto market even your investment may collapse completely.

Most of centralized cryptos share is being holded by the project team or CEO itself. If anyone sell the big funds you will be washed with the centralized coin you have but decentralized are not like that. If there is demand and supply reduced you can easily make the money out of it.

Honestly, it depends on who the centralized party are. If the government decides to release their own cryptocurrency in the future as a digital/blockchain replacement for fiat then chances are it's going to be 'safe' just like banks are and pretty much everything else that we use nowadays.

The issue is more about them having full control of our funds/data which puts everything back to square one in regards of financial freedom and privacy.

i am not rambling you are just an idiot

capitalism also surpresses propaganda, or advertising, just look what the banksters in new york wallstreet did, they also ran an expensive licensing system the truth about them is that they seek money earning cattle, to center the economy on themselves, or just look at the coindesk conference that vitalik boycotted for various reasons, it costed 4k usd to attend it, nothing for ordinary people to participate. capitalists indeed exclude and create borders, its good that there are some blockages.

under that pretext freedom equality and human rights, everyone should be allowed to create his own cryptocurrency. but what do i read here? attempts scamming defenseless children in schools?

uhm jes bitcoin is a pyramid scheme and very shady one, it wastes a ton of electricity, without having any altruistic usefullness.

it wasnt even an inovation, it was just someone daring to build it, because everyone that had that thought knew it would be illegal. Humans were building moch more difficult things than "bitcoin" like skyscrappers, or aircraft carriers, spaceships etc. if it was a true national goal to create a cryptocurrency in the internet there would have been one created 1000 times as complex as bitcoin....

and no bitcoin is a world wide propagated ponzi scheme, a propaganda coin, a few were sold in order to claim the others are worth more, the core problem here is that people believe and trust this garbage.

as long as the media doesnt behave neutral this system is a pyramid scheme. and a very evil one as it makes everyone uninvolved poorer, through its existance and waste,

only thing bitcoin is good is, giving freedom from banking cartels that are overregulated and to complex to manage society, but bitcoin is just the weapon easing the resistance, its not the tool that then will fix economis issues bitcoin is not made for that. other cryptocurrencies will have to do that.

When we do talk on the word "centralized" then it would really just like the same with local fiat where governments do really have the full control but still it doesnt mean that they are safer because government do controls it there are instances which hidden transactions cant really be traced up due that fiat money is on physical form where people can make transactions without being caught on governments side. When it comes to restrictions then expect there would be definitely laws towards this and as a user you cant help it but to obey on what they had set out.

Easier to ban? If government decide to completely stop, since they do have the control they can do such thing unlike decentralized things which they dont really have the capability why they do really hate out crypto in the very first place.

I think the government can not completely limit cryptocurrency even though it offers more centralized security. even on the other hand banks are declared centralized safe by the government could be crushed by people who commit crime.

Centralized systems fully depend on one point/server/center
If something goes wrong with it - everythings stops working properly. Moreover, The center has the full control of the whole system- which can be bad sometimes

but also good, since it has then power to shape things for the better

-> see ethereum, cardano, iota, ripple

most coins in top 10 are central

For this clear example you can find China because biggest communist country of this world does not able to touch the bitcoin means what other government can do. There is no government completely involved in any cryptos even on centralized cryptos as well.


Government only crush the people who earning with their hard work. So far all the government saying that they are not good at understanding the crptos and holding more money on cryptos will be punished. Since all the transaction are being anonymous nothing  worst mate.

The centralized cryptocurrencies are contrary to the spirit of blockchain. You are being controlled and monitored because they are managed from a single center. Of course, you can still use these coins for investment purposes. There's nothing to say about this. When it comes to security, I think we can't say it's safer or it's not.On the other hand if governments start using their own cryptos, we can say it would be safer.

before bitcoin was invented there was no shortage of digital currencies. every single one of them was centralised and they all proved to be ultimately useless because of that single point of failure.

i really wish there was a demonstration of the necessity of bitcoin's decentralisation. it's literally the only reason it has value and it's also the first thing most idiots want to get rid of to make it 'better'.

you can't retrofit it. once it's gone it's gone and the party is over for good.

Are there cryptocurrency that is centralized? I know of decentralize of cyrptocurrency which has no formal authority controlling it. But to talk of centralize means you are thinking of fiat currency.

A Cebtralized currency will almost always be more prone to failure, owing to government intervention, (they could just issue a cease and desist order and bam its over). Ripple and maybe neo (debatable) could be prime examples of this. I think there are a total of 9 Nodes on ripple, and it would be very easy to shut them down.

Even assuming this were not the case you would have to have a great deal of trust in the centralized system (why trust a company over say the IMF or a SWIFT run blockchain), essentially it negates one of the primary advantages of a true blockchain based system where you are not suppose to need a trusted third party intermediary.

Ripple is the such a shit coin which has the bank intervention on this, So far we do not find the good centralized which is came to the market for helping the investors and normal cryptos workers.
I see the NEO really came to help the smart contract work for the people.
But they have more errors on using the smart contract on their platform. I personally do not agree that centralized cryto currencies are safe.

Centralized cryptocurrencies are the antithesis of public, open cryptocurrencies that are inherently decentralized; there is also an exception for this 'rule', Ripple for example - toxic with regard to the moral values of the crypto-community. But essentialy, trust is build from many participants in an open manner and secured by cryptographic and matematically verifiable proofs - you need no central authority to trade or store value.

I don’t think centralization makes cryptocurrencies any safer. It only increases the trust of the people in the technology since it is backed by a central authority as is in the case of banks. But centralization can be actually harmful for cryptocurrency market because it can turn off the currency anytime and we can’t do anything then. In centralized market it is easier for government to attack the single point of failure. Whereas in decentralized system it has to target every node and miner to end the network.

I agree with you on this.

To be honest I've never heard about centralized cryptocurrencies lol . They are just 2 types : centralized currencies such as dollar / euro etc . And descentralized cryptocurrency such as : bitcoin ; ethereum etc. Someone can tell me what are the centralized cryptocurrencies ?

You are right TryNinja centralized currencies are not safe.
It is indeed easy for the goverment to crash it's service because of single point of failure that is why the decentralized service has been created to get the shitty centralized not the safest one for storing money. The data of centralized currency is possible to hacked by hackers to steal money without getting noticed by owners.

Centralized currencies can seem less safe, but it's not black and white and Ripple is an example of that. We talk more about this in out blog post here:

http://bit.ly/RippleGuide

Cheers!

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