What if governments make Bitcoin centralized?

[Alisha-k]

The possibility of Bitcoin been centralized is by far really narrow, Bitcoin has gone a long way and gained so much recognition to be centralized.
But let's assume it's possible, Bitcoin would loose it's value because top Investors would all withdraw from the system.

The government can only try to regulate Bitcoin but not to completely manipulate it.

[witcher_sense]

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

Naturally, they could print an infinite amount of money to acquire necessary mining hardware to perform an attack on the network, or they could bribe or coerce the miners to work for the benefit of the State. However, the thing is that the uncontrolled printing would make their national currency hyperinflated and almost worthless, especially if compared to a disinflationary currency such as Bitcoin. The whole economy may collapse. I don't think they will take such a risk if there is no guarantee of success. Anyway, what is the point of making Bitcoin a centralized currency? It won't have these helpful features as CBDCs do.

As a side note, a centralized decentralized digital currency sounds like an oxymoron. A centralized Bitcoin doesn't make any sense: it either stays decentralized or cannot be called Bitcoin.

If they really wanted to nationalize and centralize Bitcoin, they would simply order their citizens to hand over Bitcoin to the State. If citizens refused to follow the order of the State, they would find themselves in jail for disobedience. It is not that hard to issue an order, I don't know what stops them?

[davis196]

It seems to me that you are recycling an old discussion.
In reality,there's no point for any government to invest(or waste) billions of dollars into buying or building mining facilities.
What's the point?Getting revenue from transaction fees?Don't make me laugh.
In theory,if such thing happens and some government takes control over 51% of the hashrate,two things will happen:
1.First.The vast majority of the Bitcoin community will abandon Bitcoin Core and choose an alternative.
2.Second.The Bitcoin price will collapse to a really low value,which makes the entire operation unprofitable.

[D-law]

What's gotten in return from centralizing bitcoin ?
Ion think this is a good move to some government,but some are without selfish interest,not having full control over bitcoin and giving a green for bitcoin activities to be carried out, a simple example is that of El Salvador.

[CryptocurencyKing]

Of course, the only way governments worldwide will be able to control 51% of Bitcoin's hashrate is if they unanimously agree on using Bitcoin is a "One World Currency". This may all sound crazy, but we cannot ignore it from happening in the future.

This is the exact reason why, a bitcoin 51% attack from the government in a bid to bring in centralization into bitcoin can never work. Countries on the world can never be united on any course. Not even within a continent. The idea of a general currency within a continent have been established but up to this moment, its been unachievable.
With nations looking out for selfish gains and interest, which nation should control what and who owns what, bitcoin is off limits for centralization by nations of the world. The best they could attempt is what they've been trying to do since. Creation of a digital currency that would be pegged with fiat and it haven't gotten them any further into what cryptocurrency really is.

[yazher]

Look what is happening in the world now and you will see that is the way they are going.

Just like what they've done with the vaccine when they won't force people to get vaccinated but they made some rules for the people who are not yet vaccinated. They can lock down an entire country with just some rumor of a new Covid variant and when they create their own bitcoin, I'm pretty sure that they can force someone to sell it or to make it look bad so that they can get it back. Just look what is happening to the billionaires in China. If the whales are known to the public, their government will take advantage of them.

[Abiky]

..the closest they can do to centralize it, is to make it legal tender.

Exactly. El Salvador was the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender, so it should only be a matter of time before other countries follow suit. There's the risk of centralization, since governments could easily control mining operations and centralized exchanges in order to manipulate Bitcoin to their own will. Besides, the cryptocurrency has an unequal distribution of its supply these days. Most big players have a large stake in Bitcoin, while the little guy is left out of the system. If this keeps up, Bitcoin will reach centralization faster than you'd imagine.

At least, the project's open source nature will keep it going for a long time. In the event Bitcoin becomes centralized, the community could simply create a new fork with a different consensus algorithm and a more equal supply distribution. Let's hope decentralization prevails in the long run for the good of crypto/Blockchain tech. Just my thoughts

[diahsw]

I think it's good, even if it really happens I make sure everyone will make bitcoin a very promising investment in the future, everyone will buy bitcoin at an expensive price they will want to buy it. So it's a good step to invest in the future..!!

[Ziskinberg]

Look what is happening in the world now and you will see that is the way they are going.

Just like what they've done with the vaccine when they won't force people to get vaccinated but they made some rules for the people who are not yet vaccinated. They can lock down an entire country with just some rumor of a new Covid variant and when they create their own bitcoin, I'm pretty sure that they can force someone to sell it or to make it look bad so that they can get it back. Just look what is happening to the billionaires in China. If the whales are known to the public, their government will take advantage of them.

That was an abuse of their authority, I guess. The government supposedly will help the community but instead, they become helpless in the way that they will take advantage of their power to manipulate all the things around and make the people follow them forcefully. Now, I was thinking that there is a bigger chance for them to make Bitcoin become centralized and take control of its prices. Like what happens to the country where they are imposing strict rules, it was clear to design that someday it fall into their hands.

[GeorgeJohn]

The cooperation or relationship between government and bitcoin is far. Is like Combinating bitcoin and government together for fight, and in other way round it's also like the process whereby putting lighting matches and fuel so close, so to expatiate this to our understanding, never will it happen, that government adopt bitcoin and bitcoin also become centralized, do you realize that when we say centralization, we are making reference of regulations by organization or a particular sector if bitcoin happened to be centralized. Which i know vividly that bitcoin will remain in decentralized platform.

[proTECH77]

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.

Since many countries are still against bitcoin because they are not the one controlling bitcoin which is try to be more popular than fiat money in the country. Bitcoin will remain decentralized currency that anyone can use to invest and start making profits from your investment. Bitcoin cannot become a centralized currency because the country to be the one to control the decentralized currency will be a challenges to the countries.

[herurist]

I don't think something like this will ever happen, the price of bitcoin is now too high even though it will be even higher but there is only a little left because most of it has been mined and of course the government doesn't want to bother making something like this happen right now.
on the other hand I feel that bitcoin will still be bitcoin like now there will be no system that supports the government to make btc centralized

[ven7net]

Have you ever thought about Bitcoin becoming centralized someday? The ever-growing mainstream adoption of Bitcoin worldwide will only lead us closer to such scenario. To our surprise, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The more popular the cryptocurrency becomes, the more countries will be tempted to follow El Salvador's footsteps. Imagine governments making their own mining facilities, or even buying pre-established mining companies in order to gain a piece of the pie. If they manage to control more than 51% of Bitcoin's hashrate, the cryptocurrency will effectively become centralized. That, and the fact that they already control centralized exchanges is a very alarming situation for the future of Bitcoin.

Of course, the only way governments worldwide will be able to control 51% of Bitcoin's hashrate is if they unanimously agree on using Bitcoin is a "One World Currency". This may all sound crazy, but we cannot ignore it from happening in the future.

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.

I don't think BTC can become centralized. For this to happen, someone must buy more than half of all issued BTC, and if we are talking about the mass adoption of BTC, it turns out that it becomes even more decentralized, as the number of BTC owners increases. In turn, complete centralization occurs when someone alone owns an asset or most of it and thereby influences the market and its development. At the moment, many holders have BTC and it is available for purchase without restrictions.

[DarkDays]

This will never happen to Bitcoin and governments won't waste time mining and taking control over Bitcoin that is 90% mined already,
they can just create their own centralized digital junk currencies with infinite supply and with shutdown button for anyone who is not obedient.
Look what is happening in the world now and you will see that is the way they are going.

Yup, exactly. These reasons alone are sufficient to argue that centralization is not going to work. It will not work and it is because of exactly this that the cryptocurrency that drives away from centralization was born.

With such a large market demand and already setting off as a decentralized example, Bitcoin will never be controlled in a centralized manner no matter what governments try.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Naturally, they could print an infinite amount of money to acquire necessary mining hardware to perform an attack on the network

If you mean theoretically, then yes. They can do it. However that's one of their worst case scenarios. They don't need to print anything; they already have enough money to attack the network. It's not going to cost more than a billion dollars.

I don't think they will take such a risk if there is no guarantee of success.

There's no guarantee of success? Their success is you abandoning bitcoin and using a far more “secure” digital currency whose centralization is assured. If you ask me, I won't keep using it as a cryptocurrency if it got a 51% attack.

They don't have to retain it. They just need to empty all the past few thousands of blocks. That will be enough for the community to throw up their hands.

[Swordsoffreedom]

I think it's good, even if it really happens I make sure everyone will make bitcoin a very promising investment in the future, everyone will buy bitcoin at an expensive price they will want to buy it. So it's a good step to invest in the future..!!

So this achievement you gain by using this forum and using Bitcoin? Very pathetic.
Although Bitcoin can never be fully centralized because more than 90% of Bitcoin has been mined and its spread has increased a lot. If Bitcoin will ever be centralized then can you tell me what is the difference between fiat money and centralized bitcoin? People can't rely on fiat money so look for alternatives so they can keep their assets safe. that's why they are investing in Bitcoin cause it is decentralized and safe heaven to store our assets.

[btc2marspro]

even centralized, it will still be the BTC!  BTC continue to live on!

[Falconer]

OP, I just think that the government is only capable of controlling users rather than making bitcoin centralized. The thing that most support this assumption is that the government will not want to invest as much just to control bitcoin and make it centralized including controlling mining. They would rather create their own crypto than waste time in an endeavor that doesn't guarantee success, but I just believe that the government has been successful enough to control most users so far to comply with existing regulations with KYC and AML.

I won't worry about this in the future as I feel that the current government adoption and so on still won't change the decentralized nature of bitcoin but they could centralize its users.

[usekevin]

I don't think something like this will ever happen, the price of bitcoin is now too high even though it will be even higher but there is only a little left because most of it has been mined and of course the government doesn't want to bother making something like this happen right now.
on the other hand I feel that bitcoin will still be bitcoin like now there will be no system that supports the government to make btc centralized

It will bring huge impact in the price of bitcoin. It will became trusted a by many of the governments. The price of bitcoin is not purely on adopted altcoin.Can the centralization will bring new people to the investments of crypto tradings.If more people get into investments,the price of bitcoin will increase automatically and gives you more profit.

[DanWalker]

It will bring huge impact in the price of bitcoin. It will became trusted a by many of the governments. The price of bitcoin is not purely on adopted altcoin.Can the centralization will bring new people to the investments of crypto tradings.If more people get into investments,the price of bitcoin will increase automatically and gives you more profit.

What will you do your profit if you don't have any control of it? do you know what decentralized actually is? Decentralized system means no one has control of your funds except you. If govt able to freeze your coin and seize your profit and take unnecessary tax then what you will do with your profit? Investors will never trust such kind of centralized system.