Isn't crypto (especially bitcoin) actually quite centralised?

[dogtana]

There seem to be a tiny bit of major players that manipulate the market and can bring it down in a day. Isn't that actually centralisation?

[Maren]

That is not centralization, just normal market mechanism. Whoever has enough influence can manipulate it. But manipulation is not control, nobody is forcing other participants to sell or buy, they do it by themselves.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are completely centralized on a technical level. Some have already reached their endgame, where one central figure calls all the shots (like king vitalik), some are on their way, but won't reach their centralized form for quite a while (like Bitcoin, when there is no more block reward one entitity with enough money can monopolize mining by subsidizing it and driving all other miners with less money into the ground and eventually this entity can prevent transactions to whoever they don't like)

[Crasengover]

Centralisation is when more than 51% of assests belong to one person or ogranization. In our case only Ripple is centralized, and even this fact doesn't scare most of investors. Regarding BTC it can be centralized theoretically if the 3 biggest mining pools will unite, than their share of BTC will exceed 51%.