well, haven't we raised the passions! this is awesome
After all, the fact that it is supposedly the most decentralized is also just your opinion.
well, there is not much room for opinion and feels here since we have the facts to fallback on. Let's use them shallwe!
so, let's use bitcoin for our example, but its the same for all the others.
Bitcoin is 100% centralized. for one, it's development is now completely controlled and in the hands of the blockstream company. But also it's network is completely in the hands of the top 3 or so mining pool. You say that many people are required to stop bitcoin, but this is false, you simply ASSUME that this is the case, but you have no facts to support it; and this is fact because we have no idea who runs the pools. The top 3 or so mining pools are operated by completely unknown entities. And since they voluntarily "split" a few years ago to prevent a 51% attack (because they had it since a long time ago), it is very safe to assume that all top pools are operated by the very same shadowy entity in the back.
If this single entity decides to stop bitcoin, at any time it wants, it is the end. NO more blocks. They can of course also block any transaction they want, because there is no accountability at all, and they select all the transactions. If this entity blocks your transactions, who will you turn to? there is no accountability, and this is the worst form of oppression.
Im sure you will argue next that bitcoin can be restarted by others, haha. ok but we have to also consider objective reality. if the mining pools stop bitcoin, it will fall off the difficulty cliff. It would take years to mine the next block. no more transaction, nothing. it will be stuck, it will crash it's value and it will be the end. The code could be hard forked to change the diff, but for one, it will still take days, weeks or months to agree on who get's to do it and how, and the token will still be completely frozen during all this time. and of course, even if we hardcoded a lower diff to unstick it, what value do we use? no value will work and it will be destroyed. The bitcoin mining is a technological ponzi scheme in the sense that it is designed to always go up, but never artificially down, or it will be brushed.
and even if, after all this, it manages to restart, it will simply re-centralize into another set of shadow pool operators. and you have no idea who they are and they are accountable to no one.
this is total centralization, and the worst kind. It is also worst than banks because at least banks are legally accountable to the country they operate in. In bitcoin's case, it is complete, total and unaccountable oppression.
Besides, I wish your project only the best. I would be grateful if you could tell us more about the "custodian".
Well, thank you for asking! While it has been discussed at lenght in our official channels, i can talk a bit about it here. The custodian is Neuralium inc. which is essentially the dev team. The company is incorporated in Canada and is legally liable to the laws of Canada and accountable to the government of Canada.
The fact of the matter is that true decentralization is impossible, this is why no other crypto token has achieved it either up to now. But the next best thing is
accountability through transparency. This is what Neuralium is doing, and this is how transaction selection is performed, through cryptographic proof that the miners hold. the custodian is forced to be accountable at all times.
as a useful follow-up, I will post here 2 entries from our FAQ on discord: (if you want to see more, come and visit our discord chat, plenty of material about us there)
Q: I read your whitepaper and I saw that you are centralized. Is this bad?
A: Well, if we take things superficially, it may look like the Neuralium is more centralized than others, but it is not so at all; we are simply more honest about it. The dirty little secret in crypto is that true decentralization is technologically impossible, and nobody has achieved it yet. Every crypto out there are centralized at scale, each in their own different ways. The Neuralium simply decided to forego the hypocrisy and decided to be honest about it, because honesty and transparency is our modus operandi. Instead, we rearranged the pieces of the puzzle a bit in order to paint a new picture. While the IUM uses centralized block emission, it is really nothing special at all. The block has no power, it is only an empty container, a glass jar so to speak. Pretty much all that we get to choose is the rate of emission and mining bounty amounts. What truly matters is who selects the transactions and therein lies the true power; this is why the 51% attack is so destructive. IUM is the only crypto that allows the public to select the transactions.
With IUM, when a miner mines a block, he/she get's to create and digitally sign an election record that contains selected transactions. This is the "receipt" or undeniable proof that they selected the transactions. If the transactions don't make it into a block, then corruption is easily proven. this is true honesty through transparency.
Here is a chart we made to help illustrate the state of centralization in crypto visually. As you will see, when we look at the facts objectively, the Neuralium is actually the most decentralized of all the most prominent cryptos. And more importantly, it is the ONLY ONE to give the very important power of transaction selection to the people.
Q: So, are you saying that the promise of decentralization is a lie and we are all doomed?
A: Well, doomed is a bit over dramatic ( :wink: ), but it sure does not look very positive for the utopic dream of a fully decentralized internet that is always and forever in the hands of the people. Maybe in the future, Quantum computers will finally achieve true decentralization, it may become possible someday, but it is for another day indeed.
But, decentralization is actually not very important; it is certainly oversold. What really truly matters is honesty through transparency. And since we can not achieve true decentralization in our time, this is by far the next best thing.
So, a technology designates a custodian to maintain the technological ecosystem, like the Neuralium development team for the IUM. The key is to force honesty through transparency. In order to achieve this, there needs to be catalogs and immutable proofs of the actions of the people, which can then be used to provide undeniable proof of bad action if it ever happened. This is the philosophy that the IUM abides by.
Miners and users can use their key chains and accounts to cryptographically sign their actions, and retain the cryptographic "receipts" of everything they do. This way, the custodian is forced by these proofs to remain honest at all times. A single bad action can be immediately demonstrated, and remains etched in time forever. The power is in the hands of the people, the custodian is really just "public servants" so to speak that is forced to always remain honest by proof. And the people hold the "stubs".
The IUM is choosing this model which promises to offer immense power to the people for the first time ever, until Quantum computers give us the true technological utopia someday...
a lot of people love the "dream" of crypto, but they do not want to hear about it's reality. 
) and if the banks hate bitcoin, they might be waiting for the right time to press the stop button.
