Just as important as the electricity rates is the access to technology.
With the big boys investing millions into chips at .3 to .1 efficiency to mine for themselves they have no incentive to sell to retail or other competitors.
actually they may believe what you just wrote. but they will crash the price of btc if they don't keep small guys in the game.
why invest in holding btc if only 3 to 4 places control the supply?
unlike diamonds which have real use other then bling, drill bits come to mind
btc is purely a cash substitute. I can't see an investor wanting to hold 100,000 coins in the way an investor holds shares of APPLE (any company) if the mining is centralized to 3-5 companies.
+2
This is what I was attempting to say. If we get to where there are only a few big miners the game is done. This community can research like no one else, and the FUD alone sometimes causes price moves. If home miners aren't here doing what they love, they will do something else they love. Sure, many will hold the coin in hopes of a long haul, but once they see the games the big boys play, and play for keeps, they will realize their hodling is nothing but food for someone else.
I understand the quotes currently, 95% of mining are "big boys" now, but not the big I am talking about. The community has propelled BITMAIN and Spondoolies. I believe Spondoolies have much better intentions, but understandably both must show profits. I would never fault a company for doing so, but, if in doing so they destroy the coin by them empowering one or two companies to rule the rest then there is no longer an opportunity for bitcoin to thrive.
I have mentioned I do this for a hobby and there are many reasons why I would do such a hobby where losing money is more common for most, but I wouldn't go through learning many of the specific things I take the time to learn if I didn't believe in the core BITCOIN principle of decentralization.
I am trying to say that I believe we as a community must decide again, and again if BITCOIN is important enough. People who must make a profit will do so at most any expense. People who do something they believe in and do not need to worry about the expense are more objective oriented, in a better position to evaluate conditions purely because they do not have to "dump to pay the bills" so to speak.
Let's say another miner is released by SPtech which no one can run "at home". Bitmain will. Bitmain will roll out those metal and plastic boxes and glady take the 3% market share. I do not want BITMAIN products, but just as I have S4's for specific reasons, I would probably have some of their new offerings. I am hesitant to purchase anything from them, but, if they become the only game in town they pickup a good bit of free advertising along with the headaches. I know we home miners, or I as a home miner expect a lot. I expect safe units. I expect fans which do not fail after 90 days, and power supplies which do not fail after 1. I will throw a fit no 2 year old has come close too if I am sent something which catches on fire. So yes, there are headaches with many of us home miners.
We are also the people teaching ourselves and others to run individual nodes among all of the other things it takes for the B to survive. If centralized mining is truly what
"Sat-N." were thinking when they wrote the paper and started coding I do not know how they expected people to continue supporting the entire concept. You would be
trusting those miners. We are not supposed to need trust in anyone for any part of this experiment to work. Once we are forced to trust Bitmain and Bitfury...
I'll say this and shaddup
I do not trust until I have done my own investigation or have my own experiences which tell me it makes sense to do so. I certainly do not operate on faith people in business 'do the right thing' for me, as a user, consumer, etc.
I trust Phil enough to give him a few hundred, probably a few thousand, and he will do whatever we agreed for the exchange of currency. Phil is one of very few. If I knew Phil was the CEO of BITMAIN I would not trust him. Why? Phil is the same person. He has the same post history, the same things which cause me to trust him now. I know Phil would be pushed by others who could cause a change to his lifestyle if he does not do what they want, where my perception of Phil now is he could tell almost anyone to go jump in the lake. I am the same way. I do not need anyone to "succeed in life", because I already have. I have nothing to prove to anyone.
I must be missing some obvious item from the whitepaper. Since I am late to the game and haven't read enough as I hope the intelligence which went into this envisioned situations where centralization would be attempted, and then curbed by the protocol.
Or, is it we aren't supposed to care who mines them, as long as they exist we are simply supposed to use it? That doesn't ring well either. No, I think there must be another way. The current path for mining will eventually cause the coin to be played out of existence. It will not matter if a few big companies are mining them all when people feeding the other currencies to those exchanges where they dump stop doing so. People will stop buying the coin. The intrinsic value comes from people like me. Not me as the miner, but me as the guy who loves Bitcoin, the technology, the idea, the concept, and how it could cause a complete revamp in our lives. Information can be stored in the blockchain and pieces of it would be in every single component, not just a new line of heaters. Everything could contain some part of the chain and the only people making money from it are the people building technology from it who contribute a set amount involuntarily through their actions. We don't yet have the infrastructure in place to support building the biggest applications on top of the blockchain. Once the infrastructure is sewn into the cost of the application it will become more decentralized. Everyone will contribute some part buy paying for those applications. Not Bitcoin itself, directly anyway.
I have no doubts in the current context home mining will hugely evolve. In order to survive it must evolve into every part of our lives. The toaster, fridge heater, AC and on. It must become truly decentralized. We must evolve to a point of understanding it is not about the value of the coin and how much it sells for at the exchange, but what technological marvel is built on top of the coin's technology. We cannot depend on traders, Bitmain, and Bitfury, or even Spondoolies business decisions because they must serve one goal, profit. It is the people looking beyond profit in any short term, even losing in that respect, but the long term value of the technological advances to come. In that vein I believe any company who positions themselves to be that one big miner will lose the real race.
