Is Bitcoin truly decentralized?

[SMSCHAIN]

I think that mining is an important aspect of the current Bitcoin operations. Nevertheless, Satoshi is not thinking on keep mining forever if there is a better way to do the same easily. Since mining itself is a way of adding transaction records to Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions.  The tricky side of the question "is Bitcoin truly decentralized?" is that descentralized could refer to a system or to the geography of one or more components of the business operations. That said, I can say that Bitcoin is mostly decentralized, especially in mining but not geographically talking. At the end is a business, and this factor will likely reduce or cancel some levels of decentralization.

[MiriamWeston]

"Decentralized" by itself is not valuable, but if it leads to you being able to choose your own monetary policy and it leads to you being able to pay whomever you want to pay without interference, then it's valuable, and that's what Bitcoin allows you to do. What I'm getting at is that I hear often how Bitcoin being decentralized is one of it's biggest appeals. That's usually followed up with, it can't be manipulated by bureaucrats, or something similar. I just don't see the difference when something like the fork happens. The developers and miners are acting out of their own self interest and opinion which may or may not be good for the future of the currency, the investor, or casual bitcoin user.

[Xervo]

However, bitcoin is decentralized if compared to any existing currency on earth. There is no one person who could control it, and therefore you. He is not dependent on any state and can not be subjected to his pressure.

[iluvpie60]

Proponents of Bitcoin claim that Bitcoin is a decentralized system. And because it is decentralized, nobody can control it - not you, not me, not the central banks, not the Federal Reserves, not anybody. Bitcoin nodes are distributed extensively and not kept in a centralized system (for instance, in one server) which can be susceptible to hacking or take over. While the inherent system is designed to operate in a decentralized manner, external factors are making Bitcoin less decentralized. Why? Because Bitcoin transaction requires miners to validate and update transactions on the Bitcoin network. To do that, miners need hashpower. The greater the hashpower, the greater control the miner or group of miners have on the system. Currently, Chinese miners control more than 70% of the total Bitcoin mining hashpower in the world, making China the undisputed world leader in Bitcoin mining. Talk about decentralization. According to blockchain.info, 4 (19%) of the total of 21 mining pools control more than 50% of the hashing power, while the rest of the 81% are left with 47% of the remaining hashpower. Doesn't sound so decentralized, does it?

Moreover, Bitcoin developers are controlled largely by Bitcoin Core group that is being run by people hired by Blockstream, a private company. So now, you have bitcoin mining controlled by a small handful of miners and the developers controlled by a group of people belonging to a single private entity. Some argue that this is exactly what makes Bitcoin decentralized because none of them can gain control over it. Really? Because from the outside, it looks more like a company being run by two hard-headed CEOs who are only looking out for their own self-interest. When two CEOs clashes against one another, is that what they refer to as decentralized?

So while Bitcoin's inherent system is decentralized, the governing factors (hashpower dominance by Chinese miners and software development by a small group of developers) makes it less so.

I don't think almost anything can be 100% decentralized. We still rely on the internet for bitcoin to happen and there is not a network in place to faciliate it happening(we would need our own internet).

Countries can ban it and ban exchanges and ban mining and ban buying it. So in the aspect of that we are still beholden to some centralized power of government allowing us to use it(unless we do so illegaly and anonymously).

Beyond that, the top 20 miners obviously controll how bitcoin goes and what chain to mine on. It will be confusing soon when there is 3 different bitcoins they will switch between.

segwit1x or segwit2x is going to die off without having EDAbuilt in.

[cioloxl]

It's not really decentralized. I'd say it's become less decentralized by the year since 2011 up 'till now. I don't think it can be helped, though. Not until it reaches a state where upgrades will not be necessary for years and there will be no need for any active dev team.

[Cryptozond]

Bitcoin is decentralized in terms of technology. But from the point of view of the influence of large investors on the course, it is not so transparent

[QuartzMen]

I think BTC is decentralised as much as possible, there will never be a fully decentralised currency as long as technology keeps changing and improving, someone needs to update the code or be able to fork. Unless of course an AI controls and auto-updates the currency.

[nagatraju]

I think that it is really decentralized and we can observe it by the speed of transactions...it becomes a problem that needs to be solved in the near future

[Jombrangs]

Based on what I see in the company of bitcoin, this rumors are not true; in fact bitcoin established a centralize and well-organized organization wherein all process are smooth, efficient and not time consuming.
In this way they can save more time and money instead of spending it in manual procedures.  Bitcoin helps the whole society itself to that innovation for the bright future.

[Christian13]

Proponents of Bitcoin claim that Bitcoin is a decentralized system. And because it is decentralized, nobody can control it - not you, not me, not the central banks, not the Federal Reserves, not anybody. Bitcoin nodes are distributed extensively and not kept in a centralized system (for instance, in one server) which can be susceptible to hacking or take over. While the inherent system is designed to operate in a decentralized manner, external factors are making Bitcoin less decentralized. Why? Because Bitcoin transaction requires miners to validate and update transactions on the Bitcoin network. To do that, miners need hashpower. The greater the hashpower, the greater control the miner or group of miners have on the system. Currently, Chinese miners control more than 70% of the total Bitcoin mining hashpower in the world, making China the undisputed world leader in Bitcoin mining. Talk about decentralization. According to blockchain.info, 4 (19%) of the total of 21 mining pools control more than 50% of the hashing power, while the rest of the 81% are left with 47% of the remaining hashpower. Doesn't sound so decentralized, does it?

Moreover, Bitcoin developers are controlled largely by Bitcoin Core group that is being run by people hired by Blockstream, a private company. So now, you have bitcoin mining controlled by a small handful of miners and the developers controlled by a group of people belonging to a single private entity. Some argue that this is exactly what makes Bitcoin decentralized because none of them can gain control over it. Really? Because from the outside, it looks more like a company being run by two hard-headed CEOs who are only looking out for their own self-interest. When two CEOs clashes against one another, is that what they refer to as decentralized?

So while Bitcoin's inherent system is decentralized, the governing factors (hashpower dominance by Chinese miners and software development by a small group of developers) makes it less so.

Yes bitcoin is truly decentralized because there is no central authority that controls it. Governments can “ban” bitcoin but they can’t actuallt do anything to stop transactions. As long as you control your private key you have complete control and no one can stop you from making transactions.

[Lannie25]

Yup the bitcoin is decentralized system wherein each group has a own central management;  through this the system is well organize and there is a process implemented in each organization which builds a high level of assurance that all things are in accordance of the policy.  That is the one of the reason why there are successful;  they much focus on their goals so every service they provide is excellent.

[Kahhar]

I think the one point that prevents anything from being truly decentralized is finding peers--at some point you have to know (and trust?) at least one other peer.

I believe the current way that the bitcoin client finds its first peer is:
  1. IP addresses of well known nodes
  2. DNS seeding

It's possible that all of these IP addresses are offline and/or DNS address(es) stale; or worse: maliciously changed, so that you cannot get your first (good) peer.

Forgive me if this information is no longer correct, I am a noob.

[jasonmattson]

yaah no doubt about that Bitcoin is decentralized and it's not depending on any central bank, government or regulatory agency.

[Alexnelepa92]

Bitcoins have no centralized control mechanism: there is no single repository of information, no centralized management, and there is no point, the rejection of which could lead to failure of the entire network. And yet, most of today's companies and projects, build on the basis of the Bitcoin ecosystem, are centralized. These projects are run by specific people, at specific computer facilities, and they are subject to certain legal restrictions.

[Artgame]

Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency (C) Wikipedia 

[rontoberth]

This brings us closer to the freedom of a society that has always wanted to keep us head down and eyes closed. Open your eyes gentlemen and bet together for cryptocurrencies

[JJack@]

Your post is definitely true, decentralized means there is nothing regulating it. But if 40% of Bitcoin is owned by 1000 people ( which is true ) than they can easily decrease/increase the price if they want to. Big question marks right here in my opinion, it is decentralized from banks but not from people owning a large chunk of it.

[SummonKing2]

Proponents of Bitcoin claim that Bitcoin is a decentralized system. And because it is decentralized, nobody can control it - not you, not me, not the central banks, not the Federal Reserves, not anybody. Bitcoin nodes are distributed extensively and not kept in a centralized system (for instance, in one server) which can be susceptible to hacking or take over. While the inherent system is designed to operate in a decentralized manner, external factors are making Bitcoin less decentralized. Why? Because Bitcoin transaction requires miners to validate and update transactions on the Bitcoin network. To do that, miners need hashpower. The greater the hashpower, the greater control the miner or group of miners have on the system. Currently, Chinese miners control more than 70% of the total Bitcoin mining hashpower in the world, making China the undisputed world leader in Bitcoin mining. Talk about decentralization. According to blockchain.info, 4 (19%) of the total of 21 mining pools control more than 50% of the hashing power, while the rest of the 81% are left with 47% of the remaining hashpower. Doesn't sound so decentralized, does it?

Moreover, Bitcoin developers are controlled largely by Bitcoin Core group that is being run by people hired by Blockstream, a private company. So now, you have bitcoin mining controlled by a small handful of miners and the developers controlled by a group of people belonging to a single private entity. Some argue that this is exactly what makes Bitcoin decentralized because none of them can gain control over it. Really? Because from the outside, it looks more like a company being run by two hard-headed CEOs who are only looking out for their own self-interest. When two CEOs clashes against one another, is that what they refer to as decentralized?

So while Bitcoin's inherent system is decentralized, the governing factors (hashpower dominance by Chinese miners and software development by a small group of developers) makes it less so.

I do not know if the bitcoin is centralized. but according to my research. Bitcoin has no central control: no central repository of information, no central management, and, crucially, no central point of failure. And yet, most of the actual services and businesses built within the Bitcoin ecosystem are centralized.

[EnaksiS]

I think it is not. Because of exchanges. But I am not sure, if you never use a credit card, maybe no one can find you. Just a little chance

[pickledflu]

It is not safe to assume that Bitcoin is independent because the trade occurring and the payment for transferring fees are all part of them being connected to other sectors.