I actually learned something by reading this thread.
I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination. I have a general understanding of how mining and the network operates. I can tell you that there are a lot of us in the alt coin world because we see bitcoin being controlled by a group of elites with no realistic way to enter the bitcoin world because the price of equipment to mine is beyond our means or within our means but we know that most mining hardware is pretty much obsolete within weeks of taking delivery anyway. On top of all that manufacturers of mining equipment have a very checkered past and even if you manage to avoid all of the pitfalls above electricity cost differences favor large miners that can get better rates based on consumption.
If you really want average Joe in the bitcoin world you must solve these issues. I buy bitcoin on occasion but only to buy clams because I know I can put it into my client and stake rather than trying to compete with huge resources halfway around the globe.
I know you guys can pick apart my argument here and quite likely show me how wrong I am, but to me this is reality. I have been in crypto currency for 3 years now. If BTC looks hopeless to me how does it look to the average person that knows very little about it?
the mining wont ever find a way to be ethically restricted to solo mining. but mining is not the important thing..
put it this way, if a dodgy miners decided to relay out a block that doesnt have enough 0000 in its hash to prove the difficulty. or the size of the block was 3mb.. everyone would ignore it, the block will be orphaned and the miner cant spend the reward.
so without mining, users have power..
in currency in general.. people dont need to buy a stick of dynamite/pickaxe to get into gold. people dont need a bank note printing machine to get into fiat.
but as long as people can spot fools gold or a counterfeit bank note. it can keep the circulation of currency under control
what should be the mindset is that the rich and dedicated people can invest big in petahashes of hardware, as that protects the network, and they can be awarded accordingly.. but if they do anything negative.. we will simply ignore their blocks and leave them penniless..
which is another incentive to not go off the rails.
we should make it easier for people to understand how users control what is acceptable and also control any acceptable changes without needing to rely on third party updates or trust