That is a standard not a "control".
Bitcoin is full of standards that are enforced by the consensus code, it is not centralization it is just making sure everyone is talking the same thing. Checkout the growing list of standards here;-
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Improvement_ProposalsEDIT: WTF is a gropwing? Some sort of perverted bird my spell checker came up with!
"Bitcoin Improvement Proposals" are in no way Standards, they are a way of proposing an improvement as to how the system runs or operates.
Standards Meaning: a required or agreed level of quality or attainment
For example; Department of Health in any Country sets standards that restaurants need to follow or they are set with a fine or shut down!
If this was a Proposal of Improvement then that would be a different story but it states that it is a standard which is imposing that everyone is to follow it. Open Source platforms are filled with improvements of many types but NOT standards. Which is why there are many different coins with many different grounds, people express there ideas with improvements which others may or may not agree with!
To sum it up "Standard" is a strong word if this is an Improvement Proposal.
Nope, those BIPS are standards. Much in the same way there are standards for HTTP and other protocols. We need to have these so that all wallets will play nice with each other. You are not forced to obey by them but if you don't then your application will be non-compliant with the standard. For example electrum implements BIP39 but have they made some changes to their implementation because they wanted to use their own dictionary, so electrum is non-compliant with BIP39.
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0001.mediawiki#BIP_TypesFor example; Department of Health in any Country sets standards that restaurants need to follow or they are set with a fine or shut down!
Standards aren't enforced by law, those are called regulations.
