Will Bitcoin become centralized sometime in the future?

[sri.bima]

I think it is centralized if the centralization becomes clearer, not only the government can easily destroy it but also the anonymity user will come out because more information will be needed. maybe just a big businessman or investor who can offset the Chinese miners.

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[tukangojeg]

if it happens I think the person who wants to btc is centered, he has to work extra hard no matter how hard the current mine will be difficult also for them to control it, i think btc will stick to its ultimate goal without having to interfere with third person

[S.GOMEs]

Bitcoin doesn't have the capacity to be centralized, but rather decentralized,  we can see alot of people trying to control the market,  this is not because bitcoin is becoming centralized but because bitcoin is a decentralized,  it works in a free market where anyone anywhere can do what ever he or she pleases. This manipulations done by people in the crypto space is always for a while before another comes in.

[19Nov16]

We never know who owns the majority of bitcoin, if any person or community can own 51% of bitcoin stock then it is certain that they can control the bitcoin so that it can make the bitcoin centralized.

[dicom]

If Bitcoin is concentrated,
The government will have the opportunity to control bitcoin and a large number of Bitcoin will be controlled by the government.
So the significance of Bitcoin's existence is already small.

[Cangkeman Wae]

We never know who owns the majority of bitcoin, if any person or community can own 51% of bitcoin stock then it is certain that they can control the bitcoin so that it can make the bitcoin centralized.

If bitcoin becomes centralized because there is a majority owner then this is certainly not going to be interesting, I'm sure that bitcoin users will go away and never expect anymore to gain profit because the price is easy to guess.

[Lolo gi]

As they are in the control of the large bitcoin mining we can really feel that in the future bitcoin will become centralized and as they are in control I guess they can also determine the identity of every users and can be able to impose a tax to any individuals who are using bitcoin.

[nguli]

it looks like currently bitcoin is so centralized so in the future it seems to be just going to do a deeper development again, I believe bitcoin provides the best features for its users.

[gunungkembar]

yes of course in the future cryptocurrency could be more centralized again and will become safer and very difficult to penetrate and make bitcoin very good.

[imstillthebest]

yes of course in the future cryptocurrency could be more centralized again and will become safer and very difficult to penetrate and make bitcoin very good.

Be more centralized again? so do you mean that cryptos are now centralized? no. Cryptos are not centralized and wont be centralized because they are built to be fully independent. government or banks cannot possibly control crypto even if they wanted to , it is because they cant solo the source code from their own hands. cryptos are only written to be open source which means anyone can freely see them but they cant be able to modified it for thier own sake.

online exchanges or crypto wallets can only become centralized but not cryptos itself.

[Bonsaiav]

As mining difficulty increases and new ASIC hardware gets developed, it would make it less possible for any average user to mine Bitcoin, thus making it more centralized each day.

At first I thought so, but the facts said otherwise.
1). Bitcoin is getting more and more difficult to mine.
2). The Chinese government in the end banned bitcoin mining as well as tightening the rules of cryptocurrency.
At the same time, since the issuance of such restrictions and regulations,
adverse effects hit the bitcoin value and at that instant, the bitcoin price dropped dramatically.

[Yatsan]

I think that bitcoin will never become centralized. This is contrary to its very essence. But even if this happens for some reason, many will give up bitcoin and give preference to another currency.

all these things can happen, but we also never know how bitcoin development is going forward. sometimes it can be centralized and sometimes not, it all depends on the development of bitcoin that has been or is running for this.

I don't think this would even come to the minds of the developers. Bitcoin aims to have a global reach. And with this, bitcoin is made to be a decentralized cryptocurrency to make it more efficient. If it were to become centralized in the future then the benefits would only come to the locality to which it was based and the investments of all people who are outside the vicinity would lose meaning.

[Chris BENNETT]

no Bitcoin will never be centralized in any time future bitcoin is built on the decentralized network with no intermediate involving in between moreover we can see more decentralised applications coming within the form of wallets in bitcoin ecosystem

[currencydesigner123]

I really don't say whether it will happen or not but I think it should have to be. Critics point to centralized exchanges, wallets, and payment processors to condemn Bitcoin's claims of decentralization. So much volatility could be managed by hard law and regulation. If Bitcoin can be centralized the value of it will decrease, Yes, it is true. On the other hand, so much people will start using it like a daily need. At the same time so much energy will save for sure.

[Ayasena]

Bitcoin does not have a centralized system that would be managed by one organization. Security control and, indirectly, the way the development of the currency is carried out by the participants - people who are engaged in "digging", launching Bitcoin software on their computers.

[Abiky]

despite the fact that POW stays reliable algorithm, there’s a danger for bitcoin to be centralized so far, yes, the rich keep getting richer and I can’t see the solution of main trouble – initial coin distribution…

Agree. While PoW can provide a greater level of security than most consensus algorithms we know and love today, it's wasteful in energy consumption, and it's extremely centralized (in the case of Bitcoin) when specific mining hardware is designed for it. The advent of ASICs allowed Bitcoin to be extremely secure, but the biggest downside is that it prevents small miners from participating on the network, and gives the power to those who're wealthy. Here, Bitmain has the most dominance in the Bitcoin network. At any moment, the company could decide to perform a successful 51% attack to destroy Bitcoin.

Which is why, I believe that Bitcoin's current mining algorithm is centralized and could turn out to become even worse, as mining monopolies like Bitmain keep releasing more advanced miners for their own benefit. Unless, other mining manufacturers emerge with the capability to compete with Bitmain, the latter will retain that dominance over the Bitcoin network for many years to come.

If Bitcoin wants to become as decentralized as possible, I believe that it should look out for mining algorithms which penalize big miners and mining pools on the network. This would allow small miners or everyday people to participate on the network, minimizing the risk of centralization. One good example is the M7M PoW algorithm used by Magi (XMG) which reduces its block reward the greater the hashrate on the network. As such, it would encourage everyone on the network to use the minimum amount of hashrate possible, allowing anyone to participate on the mining process. This approach is far more decentralized than Bitcoin's current PoW algorithm, IMO.

Nevertheless, only time will tell if Bitcoin would maintain a decentralized network, or all the way around it. Just my thoughts

[papasmurph]

Overall, I do not think this will happen. But, as the old proverb says "never say never" says, so everything can be possible. But if that happens, I think most of the investors will give up on BTC, because decentralization is the main idea of BTC. 

[mak2017]

As Bitcoin mining is partially controlled by Chinese miners, I have a feeling that sometime in the near future, Bitcoin can become centralized if no solution against this is proposed.

If BTC could manage to bring a solution towards mining centralization by preventing mining pools with the most hashrate to effectively gain control of the network, then it would aim to become more decentralized over the years.
 
As mining difficulty increases and new ASIC hardware gets developed, it would make it less possible for any average user to mine Bitcoin, thus making it more centralized each day.

Nevertheless, I would like to know your opinion about this, as if BTC becomes centralized, it might cause it to decrease in value, and most of all, violate the principles that it was created for.  

This actually could happen, as we see right now how big players manipulate bitcoin price.
Mostly miners and exchanges who are holding a lot of bitcoins can do so, to make the price go in the direction they desire.
Mining pools are getting more hash rate everyday, which is also a signal of centralization for me. If one mining pool will control 51% of hash rate, this will be the first step towards centralization.
Still i hope that miners, whales and other big players can find a way to keep bitcoin as it supposed to be - decentralized.

[Taki]

As Bitcoin mining is partially controlled by Chinese miners, I have a feeling that sometime in the near future, Bitcoin can become centralized if no solution against this is proposed.

If BTC could manage to bring a solution towards mining centralization by preventing mining pools with the most hashrate to effectively gain control of the network, then it would aim to become more decentralized over the years.
 
As mining difficulty increases and new ASIC hardware gets developed, it would make it less possible for any average user to mine Bitcoin, thus making it more centralized each day.

Nevertheless, I would like to know your opinion about this, as if BTC becomes centralized, it might cause it to decrease in value, and most of all, violate the principles that it was created for.  

This actually could happen, as we see right now how big players manipulate bitcoin price.
Mostly miners and exchanges who are holding a lot of bitcoins can do so, to make the price go in the direction they desire.
Mining pools are getting more hash rate everyday, which is also a signal of centralization for me. If one mining pool will control 51% of hash rate, this will be the first step towards centralization.
Still i hope that miners, whales and other big players can find a way to keep bitcoin as it supposed to be - decentralized.

In my understanding centralization of bitcoin would mean its control by central bank of some country. I think something like that is impossible to happen. And control of bitcoin by a group of whales is pretty possible, but I can't imagine what kind of changing it will bring to all of us and how it is going to be regulated. If you have more detailed ideas, please share it.

[Rashid6293603]

With increasing cost of mining and increasing resources for bitcoin mining, centralization is possible. In this case, the brain production centers of bitcoin will control its production no more than