The One Thing That Could Stop Bitcoin

[Vertex_ICO]

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts are of the opinion that cryptocurrency is unstoppable. The basis for this belief stems mainly from the decentralized protocol that maintains the Bitcoin network. From its original design, the distributed ledger of Bitcoin is maintained by participating computers from different parts of the world. A perceived alteration of this system is what has generated fear among many Bitcoin users. Some people even believe that the reason behind this fear is the one thing that could stop Bitcoin.

There is a perceived original structure of the Bitcoin network, at least by the early adopters. This perception is that individuals across the globe will be able to run Bitcoin nodes and mine the cryptocurrency on their personal computers. This was the system in Bitcoin’s early days. However, because Bitcoin mining is now a competitive exercise, specialized equipment began to find their way into the industry.

Can I Still Mine Bitcoin As An Individual?

Gradually, mining Bitcoin with a regular PC became a wild goose chase. Within one decade of Bitcoin’s existence, miners have moved from PC, to GPUs, FPGAs, and today ASIC miners have dominated the industry. With time, what was expected to be a level playing ground with minimal entry requirements became more and more sectionalized. Unless you have an ASIC miner, it has become almost impossible for you to compete in the mining network. The competition did not stop there, as even among the ASIC hardware users, the bar has been raised.

The fear of many Bitcoin users is that the regional balance of mining power has become chronically one-sided. Because of infrastructural availability and other fundamental factors, over two-thirds of the mining hashrate emanates from China. What this means is that most of the mining equipment within the Bitcoin network is installed in and around the Chinese region. Is China the one thing that could stop Bitcoin?

https://twitter.com/PlattsburghBTC/status/1175970888006733826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.embedly.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext%252Fhtml%26key%3Da19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07%26schema%3Dtwitter%26url%3Dhttps%253A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fplattsburghbtc%2Fstatus%2F1175970888006733826%26image%3Dhttps%253A%2F%2Fi.embed.ly%2F1%2Fimage%253Furl%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fpbs.twimg.com%25252Fprofile_images%25252F638232680639823873%25252FZ60ZA2Of_400x400.png%2526key%253Da19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07


Why Are Most Bitcoin Miners Located in China?

Although Bitmain, the main manufacturers of ASIC miners, is based in China, other factors that attract most of the Bitcoin mining to the region include the cold weather and cheap electricity. While these are the infrastructural reasons for locating Bitcoin mining equipment in China, it only halfway explains why so much hashrate is concentrated within the region. The majority of the hashrate (over 70%) is shared among just a few mining pools and many consider this so contribute to why China could be the one thing that could stop Bitcoin. Here is why:

Since Bitcoin mining has become very competitive, many independent miners find it difficult to carry out Bitcoin mining activities profitably. It became common that individual miners were running their equipment and consuming electricity without getting any rewards. The more efficient machines seemed to be taking all the money in the network. This gave rise to what we know today as Bitcoin mining pools. Individuals or groups are now pulling resources together to build gigantic mining farms. This results in more efficient machines that can mine blocks more frequently and the rewards are shared among the participants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8kua5B5K3I

The Bitcoin mining pool system has become so organised that an individual from any part of the world can simply subscribe to a Bitcoin mining company and their mining exercise. What interests us here is that the biggest of these companies and their Bitcoin mining farms are located in China. Technically, this looks like a structure that defeats the original design of a decentralized network. To worsen the case, it is happening in a region that is spontaneous with regulations and sanctions, as we’ve seen before.

Why Is China So Powerful In The Bitcoin Industry?

China has had a strong presence in the Bitcoin ecosystem, especially from the early days. Most of the big exchanges had strong bases in China, and the awareness of the technology in the region was second to none. The regulatory stampede on exchanges in the country in 2017 was a sudden move that did not necessarily come as a surprise. The socio-political atmosphere of China and the way its government executes economic policies is giving Bitcoin users reasonable concern. With about two-thirds of the Bitcoin mining hashrate based in China, it technically leaves the entire network at the mercy of the government’s policy makers.

F2Pool, AntPool, BTCC, BW Pool are some of the biggest Bitcoin mining pools in the Bitcoin network, and are all located in China. It is also suspected that a reasonable share of the unknown pools within the network are also situated there.

Although many Bitcoin users do not care too much about where the Bitcoins are mined, their concerns remain mainly on where to buy the mined Bitcoins. Platforms like Vertex.Market (https://vertex.market) which offers peer-to-peer trading allows traders to stay within the original protocol of the network, and trade Bitcoin seamlessly with traders around the world. And the network’s protocol must not be neglected.

Bitcoin is created as a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Anything that threatens this protocol will not be good for the cryptocurrency. Although many people seem not to be distracted by the lopsided regional hashrate allocation, there are those who really think that it is one thing that could stop Bitcoin.

https://medium.com/@official_83664/the-one-thing-that-could-stop-bitcoin-3bb9da7c0772

[1715001263]

1715001263

[Mandoy]

Though China can have a big impact on bitcoin since the largest hashrate in mining bitcoin comes from China and even the powerful mining hardware are also coming from China. The antminer series that are hot stuff on the market are made by bitmain which is located in China. Also the electric cost in mining in China is much cheaper compared to other countries. But even though that is the case even if China dumps all of its bitcoin and all miners in CHina stops mining and even if bitmain stops producing bitcoin mining hardware bitcoin will not stop. Other country will see this as an opportunity and will replace China, remember as long as there is profit companies will race to catch that opportunity.

[CryptoBry]

There is no doubt that most of the influence as far as Bitcoin mining is concerned is very much concentrated in China though as of now we have nothing to be afraid of because the government has not intervened and use this reality to inject chaos into the Bitcoin ecosystem and in fact the government has been encouraging the Bitcoin mining industry to leave the country once and for all.

So is there a good solution to the centralization of Bitcoin mining? Can we not go back to the time when CPU mining can be possible and can be participated by as many people as possible and unlike today where power is shared by limited few? I think e already know the answer to this question. In case something sinister will be planned by a rogue regime in China then I think we might have a big problem but solutions can always be found to remedy the possible situation.

[lobat999]

I don't think China can influence or overtake the Bitcoin network even though it hosts most of its BTC's major mining pools. This is a wrong perception of China's supposedly dominance over the network and this is simply because these mining pools are composed of aggregate miners not necessarily located in China just like an ordinary miner from another country joining a mining pool from China.

Aside from that, in terms of nodes that supports the Bitcoin network, China is  only currently ranked no. 8 among the top 10 countries who holds the most number of nodes. Unless otherwise China holds more than half of mining power and more than half of nodes, it would be very difficult for them to "own" the network so to speak. Imho.

Reference: https://bitnodes.earn.com/

[bitcoworld]

I don't think China can influence or overtake the Bitcoin network even though it hosts most of its BTC's major mining pools. This is a wrong perception of China's supposedly dominance over the network and this is simply because these mining pools are composed of aggregate miners not necessarily located in China just like an ordinary miner from another country joining a mining pool from China.

Aside from that, in terms of nodes that supports the Bitcoin network, China is  only currently ranked no. 8 among the top 10 countries who holds the most number of nodes. Unless otherwise China holds more than half of mining power and more than half of nodes, it would be very difficult for them to "own" the network so to speak. Imho.

Reference: https://bitnodes.earn.com/

I think the same, really good explained tho +rep

[Red-Apple]

so in short you basically read some FUD online about bitcoin, mining centralization and hashrate and then made a wallet of text based on that false information!
the fact is, not being able to mine with a computer has nothing to do with centralization of mining or with your title about bitcoin being stopped! not to mention that unlike what you think not that many miners are from China! the mining is a lot more decentralized that the FUDs want you to believe.

ps. it is also funny how you put up a wall of text to  advertise your crappy website in the end

[Wexnident]

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts are of the opinion that cryptocurrency is unstoppable. The basis for this belief stems mainly from the decentralized protocol that maintains the Bitcoin network. From its original design, the distributed ledger of Bitcoin is maintained by participating computers from different parts of the world. A perceived alteration of this system is what has generated fear among many Bitcoin users. Some people even believe that the reason behind this fear is the one thing that could stop Bitcoin.

There is a perceived original structure of the Bitcoin network, at least by the early adopters. This perception is that individuals across the globe will be able to run Bitcoin nodes and mine the cryptocurrency on their personal computers. This was the system in Bitcoin’s early days. However, because Bitcoin mining is now a competitive exercise, specialized equipment began to find their way into the industry.

Can I Still Mine Bitcoin As An Individual?

Gradually, mining Bitcoin with a regular PC became a wild goose chase. Within one decade of Bitcoin’s existence, miners have moved from PC, to GPUs, FPGAs, and today ASIC miners have dominated the industry. With time, what was expected to be a level playing ground with minimal entry requirements became more and more sectionalized. Unless you have an ASIC miner, it has become almost impossible for you to compete in the mining network. The competition did not stop there, as even among the ASIC hardware users, the bar has been raised.

The fear of many Bitcoin users is that the regional balance of mining power has become chronically one-sided. Because of infrastructural availability and other fundamental factors, over two-thirds of the mining hashrate emanates from China. What this means is that most of the mining equipment within the Bitcoin network is installed in and around the Chinese region. Is China the one thing that could stop Bitcoin?

https://twitter.com/PlattsburghBTC/status/1175970888006733826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.embedly.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext%252Fhtml%26key%3Da19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07%26schema%3Dtwitter%26url%3Dhttps%253A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fplattsburghbtc%2Fstatus%2F1175970888006733826%26image%3Dhttps%253A%2F%2Fi.embed.ly%2F1%2Fimage%253Furl%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fpbs.twimg.com%25252Fprofile_images%25252F638232680639823873%25252FZ60ZA2Of_400x400.png%2526key%253Da19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07


Why Are Most Bitcoin Miners Located in China?

Although Bitmain, the main manufacturers of ASIC miners, is based in China, other factors that attract most of the Bitcoin mining to the region include the cold weather and cheap electricity. While these are the infrastructural reasons for locating Bitcoin mining equipment in China, it only halfway explains why so much hashrate is concentrated within the region. The majority of the hashrate (over 70%) is shared among just a few mining pools and many consider this so contribute to why China could be the one thing that could stop Bitcoin. Here is why:

Since Bitcoin mining has become very competitive, many independent miners find it difficult to carry out Bitcoin mining activities profitably. It became common that individual miners were running their equipment and consuming electricity without getting any rewards. The more efficient machines seemed to be taking all the money in the network. This gave rise to what we know today as Bitcoin mining pools. Individuals or groups are now pulling resources together to build gigantic mining farms. This results in more efficient machines that can mine blocks more frequently and the rewards are shared among the participants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8kua5B5K3I

The Bitcoin mining pool system has become so organised that an individual from any part of the world can simply subscribe to a Bitcoin mining company and their mining exercise. What interests us here is that the biggest of these companies and their Bitcoin mining farms are located in China. Technically, this looks like a structure that defeats the original design of a decentralized network. To worsen the case, it is happening in a region that is spontaneous with regulations and sanctions, as we’ve seen before.

Why Is China So Powerful In The Bitcoin Industry?

China has had a strong presence in the Bitcoin ecosystem, especially from the early days. Most of the big exchanges had strong bases in China, and the awareness of the technology in the region was second to none. The regulatory stampede on exchanges in the country in 2017 was a sudden move that did not necessarily come as a surprise. The socio-political atmosphere of China and the way its government executes economic policies is giving Bitcoin users reasonable concern. With about two-thirds of the Bitcoin mining hashrate based in China, it technically leaves the entire network at the mercy of the government’s policy makers.

F2Pool, AntPool, BTCC, BW Pool are some of the biggest Bitcoin mining pools in the Bitcoin network, and are all located in China. It is also suspected that a reasonable share of the unknown pools within the network are also situated there.

Although many Bitcoin users do not care too much about where the Bitcoins are mined, their concerns remain mainly on where to buy the mined Bitcoins. Platforms like Vertex.Market (https://vertex.market) which offers peer-to-peer trading allows traders to stay within the original protocol of the network, and trade Bitcoin seamlessly with traders around the world. And the network’s protocol must not be neglected.

Bitcoin is created as a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Anything that threatens this protocol will not be good for the cryptocurrency. Although many people seem not to be distracted by the lopsided regional hashrate allocation, there are those who really think that it is one thing that could stop Bitcoin.

https://medium.com/@official_83664/the-one-thing-that-could-stop-bitcoin-3bb9da7c0772

I really doubt you can consider stopping bitcoin with the cause being of China. Although China holds a lot of miners and is one of the strongest presence in the bitcoin industry, indicating that they can stop bitcoin is just not possible. Even if they stop, hold their coins or freeze their market, its not like they are the only ones participating in the market. Besides, they aren't the only country with a strong presence in bitcoin. If China held 50% of the supply of bitcoin, they could potentially freeze the market and crash it but they don't. They are just a strong presence and that's it. And realistically speaking, why would they even freeze with 50% of the supply when they could create a profit of off that right? A lot of countries could replace China as a strong presence. It's not like it's already set in stone that they would potentially be a strong presence forever right?

[avikz]

A perceived alteration of this system is what has generated fear among many Bitcoin users. Some people even believe that the reason behind this.

What kind of alteration? I don't think any kind of alterations are being discussed or planned! Miners are usually knowledgeable people in the community. The FUD may scare off the newbies but not the early adopters for sure!

Now coming to China. We all know that a major percentage of mining hashrate comes from China and the government may very well ban them or create some policies on heavy taxation which would lead them to stop mining. But that can't stop bitcoin in any way! There are other countries which can take over China because a loss of 70% hashrate would lead to reduced complexity and more profitability with less hashpower. So one deletion will get adjusted by more additions.

Bitcoin can't be stopped in any way! That's the beauty of decentralized network!

[lionheart78]

. Although many people seem not to be distracted by the lopsided regional hashrate allocation, there are those who really think that it is one thing that could stop Bitcoin.

No, lopsided hashrate will never stop Bitcoin.  Though we agree that the region of China has the largest hashing rate, it does not mean that only one company owns it.  If you look at the pie here : https://www.blockchain.com/en/pools, there is no single company had a monopoly over the hashrate.  It means one thing, even if one of this company shutsdown, Bitcoin will still continue hashing.  Or if China ban mining Company from mining Bitcoin, it is always not in immediate effect.  They will give notice and a time duration before its shutdown.  From that, company can prepare or migrate to some place where mining is the next cheapest.

[pawanjain]

While it's true that most of mining hashrate comes from the world populous country China, it's still not necessary that China will be able to overtake the bitcoin network. Also, as others said, it's not necessary that people from individual pools are from China itself. So it will really be hard for China to gather enough mining power to overtake the bitcoin network. Besides that, day by day the mining power is constantly getting distributed as more people are using the network and mining. So it would be even harder for China or any body to overtake the network as the mining power is getting distributed itself.

[dothebeats]

Everyone talking about China being a big threat into the mining scene but no one really acknowledges the fact that not all of these hashing power belong to a single entity. It's a collection of different mining farms in there and not just from one single rich individual so the possibility of taking over the network is nil, plus the fact that before it is done, prices would be plummeting and the attacker would be forced to abort their nefarious plan. Doing this thing in bitcoin is just another way of saying 'I don't need money that much' in a dumb and expensive fashion.

[qiwoman2]

China always goes big in stuff it likes to make money from and that's quite normal for a big country like China, but there will be others too, who will have no electricity cost or cheap electricity who might also be mining it. Remember also that most Bitcoins now have already been mined so it might not be too much of a problem as there are more and more people now coming to buy it and own it. Bitcoin is a love and hate object fore the Chinese, but many people around the world strive to possess it.

[tmfp]

so in short you basically read some FUD online about bitcoin, mining centralization and hashrate and then made a wallet of text based on that false information!
the fact is, not being able to mine with a computer has nothing to do with centralization of mining or with your title about bitcoin being stopped! not to mention that unlike what you think not that many miners are from China! the mining is a lot more decentralized that the FUDs want you to believe.

ps. it is also funny how you put up a wall of text to  advertise your crappy website in the end

What he said ^^^^ +1

[kramchers]

There is only 2 thing that can stop bitcoin to grow or stay in this world

1. If and  only if every country (no one will be left) will unite on not accepting BTC and will banned them on every people they have.
2. IF and only IF there will be no demand and every one will send it to burning wallet address.

as long as there is a few accepting and having it, BTC will never be gone!

[hugeblack]

Bitcoin can be stopped if everyone decides not to use it. R/}Cu:
BTC mining has nothing to do with "Stop Bitcoin" and suppose that all mining hashrate from China, they will not be able to stop it.
Even if they had enough energy to do a 51% attack, it would be more expensive than a temporary stop.
Also, all Full-nodes can unite against these greedy miners.


Stop reading FUD  Z1#^=w}

[YuginKadoya]

Provability that Bitcoin would be stopped in its progress I guess if the adoption will not continue or there will be no more demands for it, but I am seeing many things that can be possible but it is not the government, it will not be other Altcoins, but I think

1] Demands will be less and selling of all bitcoin from whales, and normal people.

2] Adoption will be at zero.

3] Inflation rate can be bullish for some commodities it will lessen bitcoin but it can not stop it, but even though it will still totally affects it.

4] The Internet will be toast by solar flares if internet connection would cease to exist.

5] The End of the world or Doomsday.

The possibility that can sure stop Bitcoin or stop the progress of earth itself but this is all my opinion and what I am thinking right now.

[Darooghe]

What do they do with the mining pools once they take over?

First, Turn off the miners. This is a very temporary attack and just means the BTC network is slow for a while and takes time to recover. A big deal, yes, renders BTC relatively unusable and tanks the value for a while. But despite all of that, the BTC network will say "never again" and learn the lesson of requiring geographically diverse pools. We might have to experience this before we fix it, but it won't kill BTC, the true ownership of keys and decentralization, which still exists despite the network being slow, will be resilient.

Second, Attack the network. the BTC network follows specific consensus rules, you can't go against those even if you control the miners. the other option is to re-write history, to do some transactions, spend some money, and then go back and re-write the Blockchain with "bad" data. This would undoubtedly suck, it would be very bad public relations for all crypto-currencies and laymen would not trust Crypto for another 10 years, they'd declare it dead over and over again until people finally admit it isn't dead.

[WatchMaker]

Nor China or any other country in the world can stop bitcoin regardless of their action whether through banning bitcoin mining or putting sanctions on miners. Bitcoin network is peer-to-peer and fully decentralized yet the nodes hosting bitcoin blockchain scattered all over the world. The only thing that can stop bitcoin is people stop accepting bitcoin which is never going to happen

[n0ne]

Only thing that could stop bitcoin is the electricity. Internet connectivity is a must, even for the same without electricity it won't function. Miners are secondary, because even when miners stand together and stop mining one that is into circulation will get used. Every country at the same time won't stand against cryptocurrency, which means the mining support from that particular country will gets stopped.

[LbtalkL]

It will never stop unless the time will come that no one will ever use bitcoin or any cryptocurrency, Most likely impossible to happen. About china they are having a huge step now, I heard that they will tokenize their national currency which is a pretty big move, and base on blogs they will launch soon maybe sooner than libra.