What if governments make Bitcoin centralized?

[geegaw]

if bitcoin becomes the world's currency then that's pretty crazy, which is a good idea, but we have to realize to be like that and what we hope to be requires a very hard and rigorous process. For that we can hope and declare something crazy for the future, but we should not forget the process..! I think there's some hope for bitcoin to be centralized, but it's impossible in my country, because they still think bitcoin is the enemy of state banks, so it's very difficult.

Dude, you need to control your emotions and don't think it's weird to be the currency of the world with bitcoin, this idea has been used on a very small scale for a long time but it is very fragmentary and now we are just assembling these small parts together to form a full scale and launch before the world. The obstacles are still the decision power belongs to the user or the government, will be in the form of centralized or decentralized, and most of us are fighting for the decentralized master, less in favor of bitcoin's centralization due to the brutality of governments in their regulatory regime

[suzanne5223]

I don't think that Bitcoin can be centralized by any government.

Bitcoin cannot be centralized by any government in the world because they can only centralize someone they have power over ad the last time I checked the government has understood that Bitcoin is inevitable and cant be control by them. However, they can only manipulate or regulate the centralized exchange site.

[Vaskiy]

I don't think that Bitcoin can be centralized by any government.

Bitcoin cannot be centralized by any government in the world because they can only centralize someone they have power over ad the last time I checked the government has understood that Bitcoin is inevitable and cant be control by them. However, they can only manipulate or regulate the centralized exchange site.

Bitcoin can't be centralized, what'll happen if more than half the mined coins gets accumulated within the wallets of very few corporate firms. Governments fear for its decentralised functioning, at times the manipulative power within the hands of corporates can turn to be a disadvantage for bitcoin network in the future.

[BITCOIN4X]

I think it is possible to see more and more government of a country considering adopting bitcoin in the future and this may have been discussed many time before but I believe only a few percent of countries in the world would agree. But we should also know that government will not be able to fully control the bitcoin network just because they want to turn it into a centralized asset. The government will create its own fully centralized digital currency instead of legalizing and adopting bitcoin as a legal currency.

I can give an example that currently there is a discourse between the government and Bank Indonesia to create their own digital currency which can then be legalized as a means of payment while they will still prohibit bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from being used as currency. This idea will probably begin to be adopted by many other countries because the government know bitcoin will not be easy to control. So I'm not so worried about the loss of bitcoin decentralization just because of this increased adoption.

[FanEagle]

Y’all should stop with all these one currency crap please. By the way, nothing like what you have said here is going to happen. If the governments has any plans at all, it is nothing more than creating their own digital currency and forcing people to stop making use of decentralized cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. And in a few countries, they are already doing this; trying to stop people from making use of these cryptocurrencies, while they release their own digital currencies, such as the Chinese digital Yuan.

As for Bitcoin, there will be nothing like becoming centralized, except for the centralized exchanges who would be a tool for the government to an extent. But that doesn’t mean that bitcoin is centralized, it still remains decentralized.

[ene1980]

Bitcoin cannot be centralized by any government in the world because they can only centralize someone they have power over ad the last time I checked the government has understood that Bitcoin is inevitable and cant be control by them. However, they can only manipulate or regulate the centralized exchange site.

A government can control Bitcoin and it is easier if they regulate the market and any exchange running in that country will provide ever transaction details to the government, so it is not a strange thing. They might not control the entire market but they can control what is happening with the transactions in the exchanges that is registered with them.

[qwertyup23]

I think it completely destroys the purpose on why BTC was created in the first place.

Satoshi imagined BTC as a form of alternative currency where it eliminates the need for a third-party consensus in making payments. By making it centralized, it will function relatively the same as fiat which would destroy his vision on why it was first originally created. The reason also on why BTC's price is so high in the market is due to its decentralized factor where only the blockchain is the source of its transactions.

[dansus021]

the answer is impossible i think since at first bitcoin decentralized and form the hype right know more people adopting it and more node spread controling bitcoin will impossible you need to create super node with 51% is crazy amount of money and off course the electricty it self

[Abiky]

Not the way you imagine, but pause for a moment and think, isn't Bitcoin somewhat centralized even today? I do not mean exclusively where most crypto miners are located (which is difficult to determine precisely), but the fact that several globally positioned crypto exchanges hold several million BTC in their possession. Governments can always reach for a measure to seize all that BTC, for some reason they can invent at any given time.

Exactly. There are many big players holding a large stake in Bitcoin today. This brings inequality, which goes against Blockchain technology's value proposition. The more centralized exchanges hold large stakes of Bitcoin, the less-decentralized the cryptocurrency will be.

A contingency plan would be to increase Bitcoin's total supply. But that would break Bitcoin's scarcity. Mining pools introduce another risk of centralization, as big miners gain all of the benefits in the long run. Solo mining is a much more decentralized option, but extremely unprofitable to perform on Bitcoin. Imagine what would be of Bitcoin if governments create their own mining facilities. A large portion of the network's hashrate will be controlled by them, effectively putting decentralization at risk. I hope that doesn't turn out to be the case in the long run, in order to provide censorship-resistant money to the world. Just my thoughts

[josephdd1]

I think that if every country accepted Bitcoin as a means of payment, it will be still distributed around the world that means that it will be decentralised. The danger is that if all countries accepted Bitcoin and one country, for example, US seized more than 50%, it will mean that US government really take over the world. As they will be able to control process of transferring money in all countries.

[cheezcarls]

Why would the government make BTC centralized? It's impossible as they didn't have the control of the transactions nor the "central core" wherever it is now or if it does exist. However, regulated crypto wallets and exchanges can be controlled and we don't have the full custody despite low trading fees and fast transactions.

[topbitcoin]

Have you ever thought about Bitcoin becoming centralized someday?

For now i never think about that, or maybe bitcoin will replace fiat. Maybe what to be focus is how bitcoin can adopt by more people, or who made bitcoin illegal, can be make it legally although only to be as an assets. If a lot of country legalize bitcoin, in case like when people have bitcoin is not a crime, then we can think about bitcoin as payment all over the world.

[suzanne5223]

I don't think that Bitcoin can be centralized by any government.

Bitcoin cannot be centralized by any government in the world because they can only centralize someone they have power over ad the last time I checked the government has understood that Bitcoin is inevitable and cant be control by them. However, they can only manipulate or regulate the centralized exchange site.

Bitcoin can't be centralized, what'll happen if more than half the mined coins gets accumulated within the wallets of very few corporate firms. Governments fear for its decentralised functioning, at times the manipulative power within the hands of corporates can turn to be a disadvantage for bitcoin network in the future.

You make a good point and what you said about corporate firms is what I have thought about long ago. However, it will lead to the manipulation of the market, not Bitcoin centralization.

Bitcoin cannot be centralized by any government in the world because they can only centralize someone they have power over ad the last time I checked the government has understood that Bitcoin is inevitable and cant be control by them. However, they can only manipulate or regulate the centralized exchange site.

A government can control Bitcoin and it is easier if they regulate the market and any exchange running in that country will provide ever transaction details to the government, so it is not a strange thing. They might not control the entire market but they can control what is happening with the transactions in the exchanges that are registered with them.

I'm surprised you believe a government can control something that's way too big for them and the last time I checked the government also agreed that they can't control Bitcoin but only regulate the CEX which is quite different to control Bitcoin.

[Woodie]

Governments making bitcoin centralized for starters this is not possible! As far as i know Bitcoin is on auto pilot, its not like we have a control room where somebody is pressing some buttons here and there to influence its behavior.  
As far as control goes, the only thing that our governments can do is have some influence over it in form of regulation anything besides this can not affect it...the closest they can do to centralize it, is to make it legal tender.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I guess the bet is that they won't. That their CBDCs will be enough.

Nah, in all seriousness the expense required to maintain that sort of share in the network would greatly outweigh the benefits.

Are you sure? They'd earn the majority of the bitcoins that are mined everyday. And in fact, a government already entered mining which makes me curious if the rest will follow. El Salvador may not have bad intentions, but I have no idea of the others' intention. It's attractive to own a great share of the network.

They could potentially attack it, making it seem useless so we can turn round to their digital currencies. It wouldn't cost that much.

[TinaK]

Have you ever thought about Bitcoin becoming centralized someday?

For now i never think about that, or maybe bitcoin will replace fiat. Maybe what to be focus is how bitcoin can adopt by more people, or who made bitcoin illegal, can be make it legally although only to be as an assets. If a lot of country legalize bitcoin, in case like when people have bitcoin is not a crime, then we can think about bitcoin as payment all over the world.

Why? why are you thinking like that?
Bitcoin will never ever become centralized, why? Have you heard there's someone who modified the code of bitcoin which has a unique protocol that only bitcoin has? It is impossible to be centralized because bitcoin has its own unique feature and that is decentralized.

Besides, why do governments need to be centralized bitcoin? They have their own currency that can be used in a centralized way, not bitcoin.

[Sirait]

What are your thoughts? Will Bitcoin be able to remain decentralized for the foreseeable future? Or not? What do you think will happen if governments fully embrace Bitcoin as the replacement of Fiat? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

this is my thought, if the government embraces the government then the value will be the same as fiat, that sounds boring. as long as the identity of satoshi is not known then bitcoin will not be controlled by the government and its value will continue to be volatile and that is the beauty of bitcoin.

[EdenHazard]

Have you ever thought about Bitcoin becoming centralized someday?

For now i never think about that, or maybe bitcoin will replace fiat. Maybe what to be focus is how bitcoin can adopt by more people, or who made bitcoin illegal, can be make it legally although only to be as an assets. If a lot of country legalize bitcoin, in case like when people have bitcoin is not a crime, then we can think about bitcoin as payment all over the world.

Well they are all tried , yet it's like a mission impossible and we as a crypto enthusiast can only laughing at them. facebook itself as a huge corporate tried that and they received a lot of shit from government while they are also developing the same shit lol.

especially thesedays where crypto popularity are on top and even getting hot.

[topbitcoin]

Have you ever thought about Bitcoin becoming centralized someday?

For now i never think about that, or maybe bitcoin will replace fiat. Maybe what to be focus is how bitcoin can adopt by more people, or who made bitcoin illegal, can be make it legally although only to be as an assets. If a lot of country legalize bitcoin, in case like when people have bitcoin is not a crime, then we can think about bitcoin as payment all over the world.

Why? why are you thinking like that?
Bitcoin will never ever become centralized, why? Have you heard there's someone who modified the code of bitcoin which has a unique protocol that only bitcoin has? It is impossible to be centralized because bitcoin has its own unique feature and that is decentralized.

Besides, why do governments need to be centralized bitcoin? They have their own currency that can be used in a centralized way, not bitcoin.

Just answering a lot of question about people who keep asking about bitcoin replacing fiat, or bitcoin supported by government, or centralized bitcoin, people keep asking about it because think that bitcoin ready to be used like that and government itself wouldn't ever to centralized bitcoin like what you said and guy above me who said it is mission impossible. I think beside focus on that, maybe better we focus for more adoption, reach more people so more demands can be created no matter bitcoin itself will be used for what.

[AicecreaME]

This will never gonna happen. As much as the government wants to take control of everything, they just can't with bitcoin, given its decentralized functionality. It will just become a little regulated, but not to the extent they can do anything with it such as manipulating its prices or even producing more of it like what they usually do with fiat money.

The government do not want something so complicated when they can have a better option for their own agendas. In addition, each governing body of a country has a responsibility and duty to boost their economic growth as well as to let their local currency bloom together with the overall state of their country. So the thing that you say 'one world currency' would be impossible. Also, I don't think the central organization would allow such speculative entity to take over and be dominant all over the world. With the features of bitcoin, they would not really like for it to be used globally unless of course it will benefit them. But then again, why would they want something complex when they already have the thing they need to have power? It's like digging their very own graves. The moment the fiat monetary system ends will be the same moment they won't no longer experience and enjoy the things that they are enjoying today (assuming that the government officials are greedy).

But to answer your question, even if it is really veryyy impossible to happen, bitcoin would lose its essence the time it will be centralized. The original purpose of why it was invented and established would be defeated. We can no longer do what we are used to do if ever it will be regulated because surely the government will intervene in every processes and transactions. This could possibly have benefits to our community, but it has a big repercussions as well. Let's just accept that there are certain things that needed to be left as it is to avoid future complications to both parties.