What if crypto becomes centralized like the Internet in the future?

[Abiky]

I personally don't see crytocurrency getting a full centralisation in the long term. I agree that there have been some extent regulations which has brought about increased centralization, but that should be in some aspect of the market.

While a portion of crypto will remain decentralized, there's still the risk of full-centralization as big companies grow in market dominance like never before. If people continue to use centralized services (like Binance, Bitmain, etc) on top of decentralized ones, then crypto will experience the risk of a single point of failure. This would allow governments to take action against centralized crypto services providers with ease. Once they decide to crackdown on everything crypto, then people in the mainstream world won't have a reason to use/support it anymore. Only those who're against the government will maintain the decentralized portion of crypto alive.

Which is why, I believe that there needs to be a balance between both decentralized and centralized services in order to maintain the longevity of crypto. With decentralized exchanges, non-custodial mixers, and even atomic swaps, it's hoped that crypto becomes more independent from third-party actions. But everything will depend on how further people will allow entities like Binance and Bitmain to take control of the entire crypto industry. Considering how far they've reached in dominance, it's becoming very unlikely that they'll fail anytime soon.

Nonetheless, crypto's traction within the mainstream world seems to be the same as the Internet back a few years ago. The latter is now heavily centralized, while the former still has some decentralization left to it. Time will tell us whenever crypto will keep up to its promise of eliminating the middleman/third parties or not. Just my opinion

[sehoon]

Even though there are centralized cryptocurrencies, I don't think that private organizations can centralized everything. But As long as there is a company that will deal with cryptocurrencies, I think there is a high chance that they are going to centralized it. In the end of the day, it is still our choice whether to use it or not.

[CryptoBry]

Yes, cryptocurrency is going to be there and individually there is nothing we can do about it. In the natural evolution of things as shown by what happened to the internet, there will always be some organizations that will dominate and will be taking a big slice of the pie. In the case of the internet, online monopolies like Google, Facebook and similar establishments are taking the control, influence and decision-power over all of us. And the only way we can gain back our own digital control is to dismantle these monopolies but even the government will not be able to do that so they can just impose stricter policies and sometimes penalties for different reasons. The same thing is going to happen with cryptocurrency as we still need (or many people still prefer) to use and utilize many good infrastructures and services offered by different parties. However, I am wishing that this will not be coming true and that I can be wrong.

[Ozero]

Governments will always try to centralize cryptocurrency management, and people will always resist this. Apparently, this confrontation will continue for a very long time. In my opinion, there will never be full centralization of cryptocurrency. And the governments also have people with ordinary sins who will also want to have financial freedom, including for the purpose of tax evasion. Therefore, there will always be certain offshore zones that will be beyond the reach of governments. However, in general, we do not know in which direction the development of cryptocurrency will go.

[jcarlo]

Governments will always try to centralize cryptocurrency management, and people will always resist this. Apparently, this confrontation will continue for a very long time. In my opinion, there will never be full centralization of cryptocurrency. And the governments also have people with ordinary sins who will also want to have financial freedom, including for the purpose of tax evasion. Therefore, there will always be certain offshore zones that will be beyond the reach of governments. However, in general, we do not know in which direction the development of cryptocurrency will go.

With the current condition of the internet network, I think it is difficult for the government to make centralized cryptocurrency. Unless the government makes its own cryptocurrency that can be used to replace fiat money and the government can only regulate its own cryptocurrency and still cannot regulate existing bitcoin or altcoin

[ethereumhunter]

Governments will always try to centralize cryptocurrency management, and people will always resist this. Apparently, this confrontation will continue for a very long time. In my opinion, there will never be full centralization of cryptocurrency. And the governments also have people with ordinary sins who will also want to have financial freedom, including for the purpose of tax evasion. Therefore, there will always be certain offshore zones that will be beyond the reach of governments. However, in general, we do not know in which direction the development of cryptocurrency will go.

With the current condition of the internet network, I think it is difficult for the government to make centralized cryptocurrency. Unless the government makes its own cryptocurrency that can be used to replace fiat money and the government can only regulate its own cryptocurrency and still cannot regulate existing bitcoin or altcoin

That will be a solution for the government if they want to make cryptocurrency becomes centralized because they can manage their own coins than the other. But they cannot interfere with the other coins as what they do with their coin, but I don't think that people will like it because people want to manage their coins. And with the cryptocurrency, people will have the opportunity to have financial freedom without government know. But people will pay the tax to their country if they are a good citizen.

[Abiky]

Yes, cryptocurrency is going to be there and individually there is nothing we can do about it. In the natural evolution of things as shown by what happened to the internet, there will always be some organizations that will dominate and will be taking a big slice of the pie. In the case of the internet, online monopolies like Google, Facebook and similar establishments are taking the control, influence and decision-power over all of us. And the only way we can gain back our own digital control is to dismantle these monopolies but even the government will not be able to do that so they can just impose stricter policies and sometimes penalties for different reasons. The same thing is going to happen with cryptocurrency as we still need (or many people still prefer) to use and utilize many good infrastructures and services offered by different parties. However, I am wishing that this will not be coming true and that I can be wrong.

As with everything, there will always exist companies and businesses that will provide services to their customers. They will always aim for control and dominance of the market, limited to how far people are willing to let them succeed within the mainstream world. There is no difference when it comes to crypto and Blockchain technology. I believe that a portion of the industry will be centralized, while the rest will remain decentralized controlled by the people themselves. Big players like Bitmain and Binance may have taken a large portion of the crypto market, but they still cannot control the Blockchain. Everything will depend on how far people are willing to let them go, in order for them to succeed.

So far, crypto is still decentralized. However, the hope of the government is for crypto to become centralized in order to destroy it in its entirety. Hopefully, that won't be the case as people continue to support the Blockchain ecosystem as we know it. In the event it becomes completely centralized like the Internet, it can become "reborn" because of its open source nature. Anyone can fork a centralized blockchain, in order to create a new version that's decentralized. Things would've been worse if we couldn't have access to crypto's source code.

Nonetheless, as time goes by, we'll be able to determine the behavior of the whole crypto ecosystem. Diversity of Blockchains and services is key towards putting an end to monopolies that will take over the entire industry. Just my opinion