Is Bitcoin still truly decentralised?

[Kprawn]

I was just thinking.

With big mining pools, getting bigger and more smaller miners leaving the BTC mining scene and more and more people using online wallets, is BTC still desentralised?

Banks have copies of their ledger in different locations too, but it's owned by one entity. {Is this, the difference?}

Are we moving into a situation, where BTC would be seen as a centralised currency, one of these day?

How many people, still make use of a desktop wallet, with a copy of the blockchain?

Am I the only person, looking at it, in this way? Well correct me, if you think, I am wrong. 

[FeodoroAndy]

It may be not so decentralized as it used to be. Perhaps even that big guys has majority of hashing power in their hands. Is it any way to know that for sure ?

[Finchy]

It's still decentralised in my opinion. Unless a mining group takes control of it in some way then it's still decentralized until they do.

[DrG]

We're still good on the decentralization part.  The community aspect seems to be lacking with idiots flocking to Ghash.IO

[Chrithu]

We're still good on the decentralization part.  The community aspect seems to be lacking with idiots flocking to Ghash.IO

I dunno it is common sense to join the biggest pool if you want a steady income from mining. In my view the way mining works has some design flaws that will inevitably lead to Bitcoin becoming centralized and Transaction fees becoming quite big, which kills the two main arguments for using Bitcoin over CCs or Paypal.

[Mr Tea]

I don't think people understand fully what decentralization means.

[guybrushthreepwood]

As long as a body or entity doesn't have control over how many bitcoins are produced and can change it at their own whim then we're fine and bitcoin is still decentralised. And I don't think bitcoin will ever become anything like government issued fiat, so we should be ok on this front.

[Kprawn]

Mr Tea enlighten us please.

If the "ledger" is controlled by a central entity/Pool, will it not then mean, it's centralized? Even if you have a protocol stipulating the rate at which coins are released? 

Nobody care to answer my question on desktop wallet use? I am curious to know if, people are still using it, or have most adopted some sort of online wallet, provided by a 3rd party.

Sorry for the noobie questions, but it seems everyone satisfied, with the direction things are going now.

[cookmac]

I dont see a bank, swooping up my bitcoins since I`m not part of their institution.

So yes, its still good.

[Cicero2.0]

I dont see a bank, swooping up my bitcoins since I`m not part of their institution.

So yes, its still good.

Agreed. I do think it is a good idea to store your bitcoins yourself but it takes a little know how to do it safely. People are generally spoiled by how easy the bank makes it to use and access money. They don't realize the trade off is their freedom and purchasing power.

[DrG]

We're still good on the decentralization part.  The community aspect seems to be lacking with idiots flocking to Ghash.IO

I dunno it is common sense to join the biggest pool if you want a steady income from mining. In my view the way mining works has some design flaws that will inevitably lead to Bitcoin becoming centralized and Transaction fees becoming quite big, which kills the two main arguments for using Bitcoin over CCs or Paypal.

No common sense would be to not shit in the same water your drink from.  By mining on any pool that nears 51% you devalue the very coin you are trying to acquire.

You don't need to be on a pool that is 40+ % of the network to get steady returns.  You can easily have CGMiner load balance over several pools and you'll get even more stability than had you mined on Ghash.IO.

[onlyu]

Mining pool and exchange are the vulnerable points.

A coordinated attack on exchanges will cause the price to drop.

[3elks]

When you can't say its centralized, its called decentralized 

And Bitcoin will remain decentralized for really long time.

[bitcoinforhelp]

Its not perfect but it is as good as you can possible imagine. Thats enough

[gigalew]

It seems to me that if people are that afraid of cex.io, they should fund an alternative that is just as good. There is no competition for cex.io, and that in a nutshell is the true problem.

[Yakamoto]

It seems to me that if people are that afraid of cex.io, they should fund an alternative that is just as good. There is no competition for cex.io, and that in a nutshell is the true problem.

I actually agree with this statement.

If everyone is so hyped about cex.io, why doesn't someone start a counter-hashing company to help repel some of the cex.io/GHash mining?

Sure, it'd be expensive, but you can always say that you're there to counter the possible 51% from cex.io. That'd be enough to get people flocking to it and funding it.

In fact, why hasn't anyone started this yet? It's a kind of good idea, and it would bring some variation to the community. I'd possible back it...

But cheap GH/s. Not the 0.0075 cex.io crap.

[DrG]

It seems to me that if people are that afraid of cex.io, they should fund an alternative that is just as good. There is no competition for cex.io, and that in a nutshell is the true problem.

I actually agree with this statement.

If everyone is so hyped about cex.io, why doesn't someone start a counter-hashing company to help repel some of the cex.io/GHash mining?

Sure, it'd be expensive, but you can always say that you're there to counter the possible 51% from cex.io. That'd be enough to get people flocking to it and funding it.

In fact, why hasn't anyone started this yet? It's a kind of good idea, and it would bring some variation to the community. I'd possible back it...

But cheap GH/s. Not the 0.0075 cex.io crap.

Perhaps you don't not visit the Mining/Pools section of the forum.  There are plenty of alternatives, and some are better than Ghash.IO.  People just see FREE and run to it.  You know there are people who would stand in line for FREE Urine just because it's free.

I think with the new AM Gen3 chips shipping out the network will balance out more.

[elliebou]

I don't think people understand fully what decentralization means.

Please enlighten us newbies on here. What does decentralization mean?

[Kprawn]

It means, there are no central organization or entity running the show.

In BTC the, let's call it ledger and the BTC protocol, is distributed to many people around the world, so it's not one organization, running it.

In banks, one organization {Reserve Bank} runs the show, for the government. So the currency is manipulated, by a central organization.

A single organization can be corrupted, attacked by hackers etc.. So it's good, that BTC is decentralized. 

[Globb0]

So in summary it is and it isn't, there are weak points and its totally dependent on the network.