Is Bitcoin really still decentralized??

[NeuroticFish]

It may be the fairest and easiest for "average Joe" if normal PC can be used for mining.
Do you have an idea for an algorithm with this characteristic？

Monero's new RandomX seems to be a hit for CPU miners.
But I'll warn you: there's a pretty high chance the CPU mining is unprofitable. Check your consumption, check the electricity price and do the math.


As an overall rule, from my experience, if a coin can be easily mined by anybody, usually the price will not rise (why buy when I can mine?), hence it's not profitable.

[f2f.mirrors]

It may be the fairest and easiest for "average Joe" if normal PC can be used for mining.
Do you have an idea for an algorithm with this characteristic？

As an overall rule, from my experience, if a coin can be easily mined by anybody, usually the price will not rise (why buy when I can mine?), hence it's not profitable.

The point about quote. I don't agree, but I don't know how to refute.
Looks reasonable.
I need more thinking.

[f2f.mirrors]

Monero's new RandomX seems to be a hit for CPU miners.
But I'll warn you: there's a pretty high chance the CPU mining is unprofitable. Check your consumption, check the electricity price and do the math.


As an overall rule, from my experience, if a coin can be easily mined by anybody, usually the price will not rise (why buy when I can mine?), hence it's not profitable.

What do you think about Spacemesh, I recently discovered a project released 2 years ago. Based on POST (proof of space time), they claim energy savings.
Copy from their website:

Spacemesh is a decentralized blockchain computer using a new race-free consensus protocol that doesn't involve energy-wasteful proof of work.

We aim to create a secure and scalable decentralized computer formed by a large number of desktop PCs at home.

We are designing and coding a modern blockchain platform from the ground up for scale, security and speed based on the learnings of the achievements and mistakes of previous projects in this space.

[Dabs]

It takes a lot more than just 51% to be able to do any kind of significant changes or damage to bitcoin. Even if some miner or group of miners or mining pool has 60% to 70% of the hashrate, what's the worse they can do? The best they can do is still just mine like everyone else and get more blocks. The smart thing would probably be to break up their mining power so it doesn't look like they have as much, and still mine profitably, normally.

[mrBTCman]

After the years in trading Bitcoin it came more and more clear to me that Bitcoin is technically not decentralized anymore... its mainly owned by huge mining farms or early adopters who are able to manipulate the market at will, many exchanges playing with Bitcoin and Altcoins by making fools out of the normal Joe who wants to enter the Crypto world, i know many here will think that you should be ready and get informed before taking any step into the crypto world, but does it not bother anyone that some people are enriching them self by kicking the crap out of your wallets??


Bitcoin Mining is dead unless you own a mining farm with the necessary hashrate, again only big companies having access to Bitcoin!!!


What is your thought about this??

I didn't really get your point. What makes you think that Bitcoin isn't decentralized anymore? Just because of the fact that miners produce Bitcoins after each verification of the transaction? Then what about blockchain which records are impossible to change or break?

[Dabs]

There are at least 20 major mining pools. The biggest ones have only about 16% of the hash power. It is unlikely that any single pool will get more than 30% because as soon as that happens, some miners will simply switch to a different pool. A few years ago, the deep bit pool got close to 50%, miners switched to the other major pools and the hash rate "normalized" for all of them rather quickly.

Miners still have the incentive to mine honestly.

[singlecivilization]

Mining naturally centralizes due to the costs (hardware, electricity) varying across regions, but UASF has shown that miners do not get to dictate what Bitcoin is. I can still run a full node on a small device like a Raspberry Pi from my home, validate my own transaction set and make censorship resistant payments with confidence that the chain won't be rolled back.

[malekbaba]

After the years in trading Bitcoin it came more and more clear to me that Bitcoin is technically not decentralized anymore... its mainly owned by huge mining farms or early adopters who are able to manipulate the market at will, many exchanges playing with Bitcoin and Altcoins by making fools out of the normal Joe who wants to enter the Crypto world, i know many here will think that you should be ready and get informed before taking any step into the crypto world, but does it not bother anyone that some people are enriching them self by kicking the crap out of your wallets??


Bitcoin Mining is dead unless you own a mining farm with the necessary hashrate, again only big companies having access to Bitcoin!!!


What is your thought about this??

Miners spent money into the tech and took tge risk, thereby they made fortune. You will find lot of examples of taking risk and making insane money from that.

Early adopters spent money too when rest of the world made fun of them. Now they are rich cause pathfinders are always a step away from the followers.

Bitcoin is example and application of block chain and block chain is decentralized concept

[satori1]

Is this why all other or most PoW coins are changing their algorithms to fight ASICS..? To skip a centralised mining cartel?!! You should really think about that, decision are taken by a group of people who dictate when there is is a hard fork or what will be done next, they don't ask people what should be done next, the same as miner with Segwit a few years ago... so don't tell us it is decentralised, everyone is shaking now and even paying taxes to the government, was bitcoin not supposed to avoid these kind of things...?

[Dabs]

Taxes owed to the government are a separate issue. What they do is make you pay taxes on capital gains, usually applied to other investments such as in real estate or in the regular stock market.

Segwit, a few years ago, was a consensus change which everyone agreed to. I mean, if you did not agree to it, then you simply don't run the software or hard fork.

Bitcoin takes awhile to get updates or changes because they do ask all these questions from the community, and anyone can contribute to the code; it is all open source.

[hv_]

Actually this topic is getting raised by science and analysts

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03085147.2019.1678262

 


More of interest IMO:  ETH ( with Buterin, with PoS,..)  and XRP

[puertorikosena]

I think that a little bit people who are interested in earning money from manipulation come to the cryptocurrency market and these people know their job. Everywhere there are those who set the direction of movement and those who jump onto the train along the way. As for decentralization, this is a difficult question. For 100 percent, it is not known exactly who the bulk of the miners belong to.

[NextDoor125]

Your concern is not a uncountable issue but there have less amount wrong thinking, Firstly,  currency it not would be as like mine,  Secondly, Nobody washing is not a basil leaf,  Everywhere have froud everywhere have a chiting at all who try to give ladder to ripe rice, So what do I leave! No, Never! In this situation if we away from benefit point and take wrong side effict then it will be Nonsense type task. We need to invest ‍and should have wait on it for right time.

[USBitcoinServices.Com]

What is your thought about this??

* Bitcoin mining is not dead. Just may not be a good business for average Joe. And we get back to the greed part.

I have been working on finding a consensus algo that is easier to participate in mining.
Compared to the high threshold of Bitcoin mining, it may achieve market success.
It may be the fairest and easiest for "average Joe" if normal PC can be used for mining.
Do you have an idea for an algorithm with this characteristic？

One of the coins that you can participate these days with easy mining is ONION, with about 250 ONIONs or less you can PoS mine from your laptop or desktop computer. There are many other altcoins that will allow you to mine via PoS.

BTC might not be fully decentralized yet, but it is in the hands of people to bring back decentralization by using or helping decentralized exchanges, or supporting PoS in bitcoin if that is still possible to implement.

[hv_]

What is your thought about this??

* Bitcoin mining is not dead. Just may not be a good business for average Joe. And we get back to the greed part.

I have been working on finding a consensus algo that is easier to participate in mining.
Compared to the high threshold of Bitcoin mining, it may achieve market success.
It may be the fairest and easiest for "average Joe" if normal PC can be used for mining.
Do you have an idea for an algorithm with this characteristic？

One of the coins that you can participate these days with easy mining is ONION, with about 250 ONIONs or less you can PoS mine from your laptop or desktop computer. There are many other altcoins that will allow you to mine via PoS.

BTC might not be fully decentralized yet, but it is in the hands of people to bring back decentralization by using or helping decentralized exchanges, or supporting PoS in bitcoin if that is still possible to implement.

It depends on how it is finally governed and how open it is for any sort of regulated / compliant competition

[X-ray]

That's the problem everywhere not only in bitcoin, there will always some people who dominate the market. Bitcoin itself can be bought whatever amount you want as long you have the money and you know there's always some big fish. but, I will still consider it's decentralized due to the fact that there's no miner who dominate 51% of the hash power and people who owns more than a half of bitcoin total supply.

[USBitcoinServices.Com]

Bitcoin still decentralized because so far the are different miners sharing a percentage lower than 51% of the network, BTC will continue decentralized because more investors are buying it. with the halving, there will be fewer rewards for miners which will make it more difficult for small companies or individuals to acquire a big piece of cake, because of a higher price of hash mining power.

[rodskee]

bitcoin will always decentralized because that is how this designed and the function as well,yeah there are some issues but not enough for bitcoin to be called centralized mate.

Bitcoin still decentralized because so far the are different miners sharing a percentage lower than 51% of the network, BTC will continue decentralized because more investors are buying it. with the halving, there will be fewer rewards for miners which will make it more difficult for small companies or individuals to acquire a big piece of cake, because of a higher price of hash mining power.

i am just thinking how could be there issues about Bitcoin is becoming centralized?can some others clarify this things?

we have been here for long and the reason is decentralization and privacy right?

[buwaytress]

Shouldn't the question be, is bitcoin still centralised? Because, Bitcoiner as I am, and as un-technical as I can be, it's impossible to deny Bitcoin started out centralised -- but that's just the nature of something that has to come out from somewhere and be born. The software was run first by one, then two people, and then a handful of pre-early adopters. Might even have been dominated by a few developers and enthusiasts a year after, still centralised. They were the users, the miners, the developers.

It's nothing like that today, hasn't been for many years. Even the first user, the first centraliser, the founder -- he walked away so this dream of decentralisation could happen.

[SquallLeonhart]

Due to large mining farm and big whales, I guess the decentralized property of bitcoin ecosystem will not get disturbed. Let's look into what are basic decentralization, we are enjoying with bitcoins, for example,  no one issues bitcoins - no one able to freeze our BTC savings - value is not depending on one or any government's policy; I guess nothing of these get disturbed due to whales or mining farms as far as I understand.

If these whales or mining farms are able to alter the total supply of bitcoin or able to double spend or working on 51% attack or trying to chargeback btc payments then we can start saying that bitcoin is no more decentralized as its basic things are getting changed due to some people.