Topic: If Bitcoin is centralized, will it still have value ? (Read 639 times)

Bitcoin has centralisation too: new protocols are created by a small group of people. It doesn't affect data storage, since blockchain is present on every mining tool, but it affects the development of the overall system, and also it has a impact on the adoption progress. Moreover, after some time BTC can be centralised not only by means of controlling update centers: the public acceptance of BTC can create menaceful and greedy money-controlling cryptotycoons out of several hodlers, just like we see it with dollar now.

If the government has control then obviously the government has nothing to fear and they will not only let it live and thrive, they may even promote it because of the possible potential profit the government can acquire from the Bitcoin adoption and usage.


I also agree that the price of bitcoin if often times manipulated by people who have a huge influence in the market.  The market price is also manipulated by the people who have huge amount of BTC and at the same time huge amount of fiat currency.  They can then manipulate the market through buy and sell within themselves.

Yes, the success of bitcoin lies on the decentralised functioning along with the limited supply. Even in the name of decentralised Functioning several other cryptocurrencies existed, but very few were standing in the market while the majority had disappeared. Even with the centralized system bitcoin could've got value, but it couldn't be the same as now in terms of price, usage and popularity.

I'm curious about your focus on Bitcoin centralization. Satoshi dedicated significant effort to establish a decentralized financial system, and it's interesting that you're considering centralization in your involvement with Bitcoin. While there have been centralized currencies that didn't gain popularity, Bitcoin's success and value stem from its decentralization.

I have used the Libra as a case study for you.  The reason why I believe if Bitcoin centralized it will be shutdown by the government is because the government never want any form of currency that will World currency or have the chance to use more or dethrone their national currency.
The government like being bossy they never like any idea to that will stop or limit their yearly fiat currency printing.

Firstly,  no country take over Gold it only depend on each countries capacity in Gold investment and interest.  Having said that,  if Bitcoin become more valuable and recognized globally which we are already on the verge it is still impossible for a single government to take over BTC.

Finally, someone is trying to get past the crazy part of mass panic and see what's really going on. Decentralisation is at the heart of everything Bitcoin stands for. The rule of law itself! And now people are freaking out and making up stories that Bitcoin could become centralised by some magic. Its like they've forgotten why they joined

Do they have any idea how stupid that sounds? Its like saying that a few puddles drying up will cause the seas to turn into deserts one day. Centralising Bitcoin would go against the very idea behind it.

And these crazy price guesses? Totally false! Keep your feet on the ground. Look at the patterns and the trends. Dont just repeat doomsday or hopeful thinking like a bloody parrot. Your example about the million-dollar guess and the $40,000 is right on the mark. This kind of unrealistic talk gives people false hope and then makes them give up

Bitcoin is a decentralized thing reason why it looks centralized is because the platform has a large amount of it makes a huge amount of market manipulations; everyone have the capability to have this bitcoin and not just keep it limited to the community like the centralized tokens. People can transact with their bitcoin and do what ever they want, buy other coins, sell their asset, use bitcoin as a mode of payment, etc. People keep buying and selling there's still a demand of bitcoin if there's no more any value will loosen up but seems like not will happen again.

It is true that bitcoin or ETH or BNB were created with their own purpose and mission. But if bitcoin becomes centralized, meaning the government can control it, how can it threaten their fiat currency? They are seeing it as a threat because they cannot control it, but once it becomes concentrated, it is no longer a threat to them. So that's why I think the government wouldn't even care about bitcoin if it were centralized, let alone shut it down.


If bitcoin becomes more valuable and recognized worldwide, do you think other governments will let the US take over all of bitcoin? Just like gold, why can't the US buy all the gold in the world?

OP let me ask you, is fiat money which is centralized currency gaining value every day under centralization? We all know the answer as I can not help answer the obvious. In same vein should bitcoin be rendered under centralized authority the value would not only drop but dump with time, and we won't be here strongly waiting for a bitcoin halving and that won't be happening. Also, making bitcoin centralized will mean taking away financial freedom from all bitcoin enthusiasts as privacy and self custody of our funds would be a talk of the past

I think bitcoin could never be centralized and will never be centralized. People are overreacting to stuff and that will always be the case in human history. People just have a tendency to make things out of nothing and that's always a trouble for all of us.

I think we should be considering that this is not really as big of a deal as we think it is, and we should be considering the most probable thing not the most insane thing. Just to give an example, asking "will bitcoin be a million dollars this year" is just way too wrong of a question to ask, it doesn't make sense at all. You should ask like "will it be 40k this year?" because that's more realistic. Same with centralization, not something we should be worried about.

If Bitcoin is centralized it will never be like ETH and BNB.
1. Ethereum was designed as a platform for developing decentralized apps and hosting smart contracts, with its native currency, ETH, acting as a system lubricant.
2. BNB was created to fuel the Binance exchange trading free and it also serves as the utility token used to receive lowered trading commissions before crypto investors see it as a good investment.
But Bitcoin was created as an alternative to fiat payment method and the government sees it as a threat to their native currency. Besides, they also believe taking it down will influence all the altcoins in the market, and it's true which is why we can't judge ETH and BNB centralized coin not taken down by the government with what will happen to Bitcoin if it is centralized.

How can we be sure that manipulation will be more difficult judging by the number of Bitcoin collected by the US government, grayscale holding, humpback whale holding, and more?

Bitcoin centralized? seems like this argument is arguably very improbable. Because its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has indeed designed bitcoin to be a decentralized asset. So,bitcoin can become centralized, How to?
But if for example this happens (bitcoin becomes centralized). It is certain that the market value of bitcoin will be affected. Because if this happens, the level of trust in bitcoin will definitely decrease. But even so, I believe in one thing, even if the bitcoin system changes to centralization (for example), but most likely, investors who will leave, in my opinion, will not be too many. Because it's all caused, the potential embedded in bitcoin is still there. So, for example bitcoin is no longer decentralized, but still the potential that exists in bitcoin will not be lost.

Because it needs to be remembered, even centralized cryptos, if they have very good potential and quality, are always in demand by many investors. Moreover, bitcoin, the pioneer of crypto currency, is the best and the best quality cryptocurrency, has the best market volatility, so it is certain that there will always be lots of enthusiasts and its market value will not drop too drastically, even though bitcoin is becoming centralized.
Yes, this is true, if bitcoin turns into centralization, the goals and ideals of bitcoin will surely fade and disappear. But I'm sure it can't happen. Always optimistic my brother.

Surely there were people that invested in Bitcoin due to its decentralized nature and having it just get controlled by another entity would make them sway away from this. If this were to happen from my perspective as like the usual investor, I would definitely sell my Bitcoin to either USDT or any sort of stablecoins out there. I know they're still decentralized with some few coins that aren't, but having a volatile pricing of coin along with a third party controlling it just screams disaster of my money being held captive or frozen.

Maybe they can't 100% control it because there would still be market for it, but they could somehow control how they're used by their people.

If bitcoin is centralized, the government will not only control the bitcoin price, but they can control the entire bitcoin network and I'm not sure they will continue to let it live and thrive. But when it becomes decentralized, they will not be able to control its network, but to say that the price of bitcoin is not manipulated, I disagree. Although I know that the price of an asset will depend on supply and demand, I believe that the bitcoin price is being manipulated by many underground forces for profit. The volatility of bitcoin is not entirely dependent on supply and demand, it is being manipulated, and that is why it fluctuates so erratically.

I think if bitcoin becomes centralized it will still have value but its value will be decided by the government and will never be able to reach the high value it is now. But you are correct, the bitcoin centralization hypothesis will never happen anyway and the value of bitcoin will continue to go higher as it becomes more popular. We can also get rid of government control with bitcoin. Whatever method they can use, but they need to accept the fact that they will never be able to stop bitcoin and our use of it.

since the beginning of the current value of bitcoin was created due to the trust of buyers and also other parties and when bitcoin turns centralized of course that trust will be lost and people will switch to other crypto assets, apart from the loss of public trust in bitcoin the bad impact if bitcoin is centralized is vulnerability to manipulation, both by the government and influential people who live in this world. in conclusion, even if bitcoin becomes centralized, the price of bitcoin will still exist but the price will definitely be very easy to manipulate.

Mark Zuckerberg wanted to create Libra and make it available on Facebook. But United States turned it down. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, do not use ether or binance coin to compare it. Likely the way bitcoin will be centralized, the government would have taken it down.

Bitcoin price is not manipulated just like I said before. Hold bitcoin, you will make profit. Speculate accurately using past bitcoin price and you will make money as well. Do not use the wealth of 3 or top 4 billionaires in the world to compare bitcoin because these people you are talking about are not even investing in bitcoin. Compare them if all or most of their assets are in bitcoin, but which is not.

Honestly, I don't have a single memory of the Libra you mentioned . But if bitcoin becomes centralized, it will be like ETH and BNB, so it won't be as much of a threat to the government as it is now. That's why I believe the government won't shut down if bitcoin is centralized.

The future is unpredictable, but with something getting bigger and bigger and as it spirals out of control, it's clear that manipulation will become more difficult now.


The bitcoin network cannot be manipulated but when it comes to the movement and price of bitcoin, manipulation is pretty easy. With a market capitalization of just over 500 billion USD, which is only equal to the assets of the top 3, or 4 billionaires in the world combined, even smaller than the capitalization of a technology company. So how can it be called mature enough to not be manipulated?

The value of bitcoin depends on supply and demand just like other assets, but when it is too small, manipulation is inevitable. There will still be self-interest groups that seek to manipulate the market for their own profit.

I am also curious if it has a value, for sure someone or some entity will decide the price of Bitcoin then.
Or the only they can control is the chain/network itself. I will not be trusting it, it's like a centralized exchange where your hard earned money is in their custody because they can easily access it.

Of course, Bitcoin is still valuable. But Bitcoin will never be centralized since Satoshi designed it to resist political control. We are all aware that there are government officials who will take advantage of or even steal from people who have a lot of assets or money. That's why Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, so that authorities who want to stop someone they don't like can't. It also increases someone's privacy to malicious individuals looking for a possible victim.

We can say for that is going to happen or not. If we take a look at centralized assets like gold etc, it derives its value because people think it has value and buys it. Being decentralized is one of the key reasons people get into bitcoin but that's not what gives it the value it has today. It's the same way the price of Bitcoin often goes up after a  halving event. In such a situation, members of the bitcoin community expect the value to go up because the halving event significantly reduces mining reward + less bitcoin to be added in the future.

The worst-case scenario for bitcoin if it becomes centralized in the future is that people who want privacy will literally dump their coins on the market. The price will drop hard and it's also possible to lose a lot of interest about its real use cases.

So far I don't find the OP's question too important to warrant more attention - but some opinions have been encountered here. Bitcoin will remain decentralized - but governments will also succeed in making their users centralized by regulation.To be honest that I didn't think about those scenarios and I just focused more on saving energy on more important things based on my plan on bitcoin.

You don't know about Libra which is now Diem? The project was introduced by Facebook in 2019, supported by Coinbase, Mastercard, PayPal, crypto and blockchain firms Bison Trails, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, etc.
The reason why Ethereum and BNB are not shut down is because they are not seen as threats by the government.

You have a point but it's hard to tell what will happen in the future since tomorrow is not promised.

and that means, someone has the control over this currency. and that's the beauty of this top coin, no one can totally control its existence. thanks to satoshi for creating such coin. no one can manipulate even if they want to.
and this is the reason why the governments don't like this currency because there are some blindspots for them. they can't get a hold of all the transactions made on this network. they can get a hold from registered crypto-exchanges, but outside of that, they can't have the whole picture.

If Bitcoin is centralized, that's to say that the purpose of its creation has been defeated, people are interested in Bitcoin because of its decentralized nature, the decentralization of Bitcoin makes it impossible for any individual or group of persons to have control over it, the value of this digital asset is obtained from the confidence and conviction that it is secure and decentralized, the influx of investors also determines the value of bitcoin. So centralization is not a good idea because the government will hijack the process and make policy for everyone just like fiat currency.

Decentralization does not directly determine the value of bitcoin, but it stimulates people's demand to increase, so it can be said that decentralization has indirectly created value for bitcoin.  if bitcoin wasn't decentralized it wouldn't appeal to everyone, so there wouldn't be demand and the price wouldn't go up like it is today.  so, it can be said that decentralization plays an important role in increasing the value of bitcoin.

Honestly, I believe that if bitcoin becomes centralized, people's interest in it will drop dramatically and its value will drop as well, although maybe decentralization doesn't play a major role in creating the volatility of bitcoin.

If Bitcoin was launched as a centralized coin it would never have gotten as big as it has. It wouldn't have reached even $100 million market cap forget about $100 billion or $1 trillion. As a centralized coin it would have died years ago. The fact that Bitcoin is decentralized is what gives it its power and success.

However there are many groups today that are trying to centralize Bitcoin for their own evil reasons, but they'll fail and decentralization will win.

Decentralization is not the only factor that defines its value. More centralization or not, Bitcoin can still survive in the market and will certainly have monetary value. However, there may be a shift in the target audience and user base as the focus shifts.

Philosophical consideration is also an important angle. Some see Bitcoin as just a payment and store of value instrument, while others may find more insight into decentralization, financial revolution, or financial freedom. This perspective really depends on the individual and creates diversity in the community.

When Bitcoin becomes centralized is it worth it?
It will never be worth it and it will just be a disaster and bitcoin will be abandoned.
Whatever the reason Bitcoin should still be decentralized and that is the main purpose of Bitcoin, the main purpose of Sathosi creating it.

We will never escape the attention of the government. Now that Bitcoin has become a popular digital asset and is used by everyone, governments are trying to slow it down and want to control it by providing regulations, imposing taxes on crypto users, and other things that will benefit the government.

Decentralization does not determine Bitcoin's value. It all comes from demand and supply. But as Bitcoin is decentralized and has many use cases, people are getting interested in it, thus the demand is increasing which is the key factor for its rising value. If Bitcoin ever become centralized, the value of it will suffer a lot. Knowing that someone else can control or manipulate your assets will make people less interested in it.
Where Bitcoin stands now, it is the perfect solution for centralization. Many people are here just for the money Bitcoin can give from investing. But those who are here for its real reason, they know how much decentralization means. If Bitcoin becomes centralized, governments will try to take control of it. Which is impossible right now. So yeah, Bitcoin will suffer but it will still have some value.

The whole foundation of Bitcoin would be destroyed by centralization! We would stick to conventional banking if we wanted an asset managed by a single firm. What about the analogy to digital gold? Even gold isnt as centrally controlled as you're suggesting for Bitcoin, though. Bitcoin's decentralized nature, free from the control of any one entity, is its fundamental allure. It would be similar to tying a wild animal up to bring it under centralized control.

If Bitcoins are centralised, then definitely the price will go down. It won’t be as demanding as it is now. Now as it controlled by a centre, so yes you won’t completely have the access to your funds or Bitcoins. They will imply many rules and regulations on the coin and finally it will be treated as an asset under the government. To understand better you can compare Bitcoins with Digital gold. This will be treated same like the digital golds.

Coins like ether are centralized but make use of part of bitcoin decentralized system which is blockchain. If bitcoin is centralized, we are going to think like it is not using blockchain but just like other fiat. This will make the government to easily take it down. Bitcoin is still the reason altcoins are surviving. If bitcoin is centralized like them, there would have been more crypto regulations and all would be considered as  security.

Are you sure that bitcoin is manipulated? After people can hold and make profit. In long term bitcoin has been a store of value. No manipulation like you think. As of today, the marketcap for bitcoin is $572 billion.

I doubt Bitcoin will make it this far if it's centralized, even if it does the manipulation will be Insane as the government will see this as an opportunity to keep robbing the people, the only way for them now is to join the race, pack as many Bitcoin as they can.

Bitcoin is strong enough to be use to finance a whole country if done right, since it's decentralized there is fear about it, even if any centralized organization under the government are criticizing Bitcoin, it doesn't mean they aren't investing too, they are just mad that something out of nowhere become the biggest valuable digital asset.

We all know that bitcoin is decentralized and it will never become centralized, it will forever be decentralized and no one can control it.

But OP's question is if it becomes centralized, is it worth it? And I think it will still be worth it, but it won't be as big as it is now. The value of bitcoin comes from people's trust and need, people need a decentralized asset to escape government control and bitcoin has provided that. So I also think that decentralization is what makes bitcoin so valuable.

I don't know about the coin you're talking about, but if you assume that when bitcoin is centralized, the government will shut it down, then why don't they shut down other centralized altcoins in the market? ETH or BNB and all the rest of the altcoins are also centralized, but why do they just close Libra coin and ignore all other altcoins? Once bitcoin becomes centralized, it is no different from altcoins.


I mean, in the future, when bitcoin matures and becomes bigger like gold or the stock market, nobody can manipulate it anymore. For what's going on, with a market cap of just $1 trillion, manipulation is inevitable and easily manipulated. I'm not denying what's going on.

I believe you should know by now that the government never cares about what you do and I think the situation will give them the needed benefit.
If Bitcoin is centralized, I believe it will be shut down/totally banned in some countries that are currently using it now due to political interest, and the reason why some governments somehow support Bitcoin is because of its decentralized mechanism. An example is what happened to Libra which said will be global cryptocurrency, the governments of different countries were against it until the team and investors involve quit the project.

Let's not lie to ourselves, there will always be market manipulation in the Bitcoin market despite its decentralization in nature and being dependent on the level of demand and supply.

It is also the reason why some people do not trust Bitcoin.  People have different preferences, one can trust one thing and at the same time, the other will not trust that same thing.  We should be open-minded on the possibilities since people have different reaction and thought on a same event.


True that it is the trust and confidence that Bitcoin will deliver is the reason why it has value.  It is not because it is decentralized but rather being the pioneer in the industry and its creation as the start of the crypto revolution. 


Satoshi is genius, getting out of the scene even before Bitcoin boom.  This way the government don't have a way to pressure the decentralized nature of Bitcoin since there is no central authority or person to pressure.  No one can threat a system that is working in a decentralized system.  They can shutdown some but new one will pop-up just like the torrenting file system.

The decentralized nature of Bitcoin is what makes people trust Bitcoin. The trust Bitcoin has is what gives Bitcoin its value. Bitcoin doesn't have so much value today because it was the first cryptocurrency ever made. If Bitcoin was a centralized coin, the fact that it was the first cryptocurrency won't mean shit if isn't trusted. Funny enough it might not even be remembered today. It would just be another trivia question, "which coin was the first cryptocurrency ever created and in what year was it created?

I agree that decentralization may not be the only feature that makes Bitcoin stand out, but that is the feature that makes it unstoppable.
The government has no direct way of attacking Bitcoin and that's because it's decentralized, imagine Bitcoin is owned and controlled by a firm, that firm would always be under attack from the government.

There will be no single institution that can fully control Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is decentralized which means it cannot be regulated by anyone including the government.

The reason why Bitcoin cannot be controlled by anyone completely is because Bitcoin uses a Proof-of-Work (POW) Network system that makes it possible for the Bitcoin network to operate independently without a central authority.
It's made up of thousands of computers called nodes spread all over the world.

So no one can fully control it.
The government can only provide rules according to its working area, it will not affect the Bitcoin Network system directly.
They may only be able to manipulate.

Then, can the Bitcoin POW Network become PoS?
Of course that will never happen, because Bitcoin with the POW Protocol network is the identity of Bitcoin, Bitcoin with POW will remain decentralized.

The basic concept is decentralization and I don't think it will turn into centralization even if the government really wants to control it. Also decentralization is not the main thing that determines the value of bitcoin, but I believe that if bitcoin can eventually be controlled in all sorts of super expensive ways, then surely many people or investors will abandon it.

Supply and demand in the market is the main thing that determines value, but decentralization also plays a role in the level of trust users have in bitcoin use cases over the years.

Well... the fact of asking that question denotes conceptual weaknesses, which is normal within the configuration of how bitcoin works to some users. Such a scenario is not predictable, it is so improbable that you question is a bit imprecise.

In any case, given the versatility of cryptocurrencies, you can technically have centralized bitcoin but not Bitcoin. 

If BTC is centralized, considering it is the pioneer crypto coin, the team behind it might have been manipulating the world for a long time, and it will not get the massive adoption it has already gotten globally.

Moreover, just as other coins are trying to meet up with bitcoin through competition, some of the team members might have betrayed the system for their selfish interests, which might lead to a drastic fall in price, and it couldn't have survived to this level.

If Bitcoin were to become centralized, in any way or fashion, it would instantly become just as worthless as fiat. Albeit a fiat which is more advanced and better than the current fiat. But it would still become worthless, at least in my eyes. The very point of Bitcoin is to be decentralized money, otherwise we are back at where we started at and not only would it be centralized, it would be a tool of control and Surveillance. Nobody would accept that.

You’re right about Bitcoin value derived from its decentralized nature but most importantly was Bitcoin is the first coin who introduced blockchain technology that makes this decentralized nature possible because there’s a lot of shitcoun nowadays already has same feature and the only difference of Bitcoin to them is the Bitcoin creators is not active anymore and they are the first mover in crypto.

Without the things that I mention, Bitcoin is just like any other and it’s value will not grow to the current value.

I don't think it will happen but assume it will.

I believe it will be a very big milestone in Bitcoin history and I am sure it will impact Bitcoin price, communities and market a lot. It will cause massive panic and certainly market will have panic sells but it won't last too long. The market will come to a point to calm down and bounce back from it, then strongly recover when people realize they did panic sells.

Because Bitcoin has bigger communities, better than centralized shitcoins so how will it drop to like $100 or $10 because of becoming centralized? It is very impossible in my opinion but maybe some people will disagree with me on that.

I see things differently from your perspective, or should I say from the perspective of many people. What is unique and appreciated most about Bitcoin is the blockchain technology. The decentralization however helps it as well, especially during the initial stage as it was almost impossible for the government and critics to clamp down on it.

While it tries to grow in value at the early stages, the first things that helped further were more access and listing, then businesses build around it through centralized systems like exchanges. This further builds confidence and accessibility that makes people believe that they can buy and sell Bitcoin without anything delaying their transaction (business confidence).

For this, I believe many things are to be appreciated in this value reference, not particularly decentralization.

If BTC was centralized but everything else like the Blockchain, launching date, etc is the same. I think it will still have value, look at how many centralized crypto in the market right now, and they still have value. But the value will much more different than now, the community wouldn't be as strong, and the price wouldn't be as high as of now. Though it will still be the father of cryptocurrency since you never mention to delay the launch.

I am not saying that if bitcoin becomes centralized it will have no value but its value will be controlled and regulated by the government or a third party. People are making profits through centralized exchanges, which also doesn't mean bitcoin's decentralization is completely useless. And just because people are using centralized exchanges to make money, doesn't mean they aren't using bitcoin for other purposes. Maybe they are using bitcoin for cross-border payments, or they are using bitcoin to become their own bank after making a profit...Isn't that a feature of decentralization?

If you consider that decentralization is not what makes bitcoin different and valuable it is today. So what makes bitcoin so valuable and where does its volatility come from?

Others pointed out very well that there are a lot of meanings of centralization, and the answer about Bitcoin's value depends on what's meant. I'd also add that some centralization options are probably impossible with Bitcoin because it just wasn't built like that.
Bitcoin could hypothetically move from PoW to PoS, and PoS is more centralized than PoW, but considering the level of opposition to this idea within the community, I find that option unlikely. But if that happened, I don't think Bitcoin would lose or gain much value from it.
To me, centralization is mainly about control over the supply and the price, as it works for fiat. But it's impossible to gain that control over Bitcoin due to how it's designed.

Why are we always busy in making up scenarios which doesn't fit in the system like this one? If it was centralised it may have value for usage but the concept is about decentralisation of funds by Satoshi.The fiat have value other tokens that are central controlled have value so it's about the usage actually.It was created with the aim of decentralisation which boost up the whole idea.

If bitcoin becomes centralized, I don't think the government will shut it down but instead they will take control and use it for their own purposes. I believe the government as well as we all see the potential of bitcoin, but since they cannot control it, they see it as a threat to fiat. And if they can control bitcoin, they will acknowledge its potential, but on the contrary, bitcoin will become a threat to us like fiat. But anyway, this hypothesis will never happen because bitcoin is already decentralized and no one can control it. The value of bitcoin will be completely dependent on supply and demand, not manipulated by the government or anyone.

^ BTC has endured for more than a decade precisely due to its decentralized nature, which ensures that its price remains immune to individual control. This decentralization empowers traders to potentially realize substantial profits from BTC's fluctuations. The price of BTC is intricately tied to market demand, a core characteristic of its decentralized design. The shift towards centralization could indeed lead to a reduction in BTC's market presence. However, the likelihood of BTC becoming a centralized coin within the cryptocurrency market is remote. The very essence of BTC's resilience lies in its decentralized foundation, and this fundamental principle is expected to persist and centralization could invite government regulations and constraints, further impacting its value.

If Bitcoin become centralized it will still have value but it will significantly impact the value of Bitcoin market because the community trust n it will reduce since the major reason why the community truly have trust in BTC is because of it decentralization which make it hard for the government to intervene in BTC just like they are doing now with XRP. Besides,  there's huge chance of BTC being close down if it was centralized coin when some government see it's high potential as threat to their national currency.

 

The bitcoin survived over a decade for the decentralized character,because the price of bitcoin will not be controlled by any individual.So trader can get maximum multiple of the profit from the bitcoin.The price of bitcoin will depend on the demand in the market it will be the reason of the decentralized.So when the bitcoin became the centralized,their is possibility of reduction in the bitcoin in the market.But their is no chance for the bitcoin to became the centralized coin in the cryptocurrency market.

In reality I think that if, the fact of becoming centralized could affect the value of bitcoin, something that is quite difficult, the truth is the way it was created is such that in all this time that they have tried they have not managed to do anything , just adapt to what it is, and look for ways to cope with this currency that has totally revolutionized the financial market and has helped many people who decided to trust bitcoin to recover and remain stable from the inflation that certain countries maintain. Now if in a hypothetical case this happens and they find a way to centralize it, it would cause a kind of notorious decline, since most seek this for the simple reason that no one besides the one who owns the bitcoin can control it, if this changes it will no longer they will see bitcoin in the same way, since the people who probably caught their attention would lose interest, considerably lowering the demand and therefore the value of the BTC.

I believe if Bitcoin goes on the path of centralization,  there will be different reactions from its community.  Many will possibly refute the changes and withdraw their support to the Bitcoin economy and look for another decentralized cryptocurrency, and others will embrace it like how they embraced ETH when it transitioned to POS.  Bitcoin will certainly retain to have value but we don't know the extent of damage the transition will make or the positive development it will accumulate upon transitioning.

One thing I am sure is that Bitcoin will continue to get traded and probably traders even take advantage of the changes to profit more.


It is not only the decentralization where Bitcoin derived its value.  I believe it is too naive to think that it is the only factor that gives Bitcoin value.  Aside from decentralization, there are other features that give Bitcoin its value.

Who says BTC isn't centralized yet?
It's now a mixed version of BTC we are seeing here, that if some custodial exchanges holding a very huge % of the total mined coins doesn't mean centralization, then I don't know what should I call it. However, I believe that BTC has come way above these things and people here are just to make money from it and they've nothing to do with BTC's nature whether it's centralized or decentralized. So its value is not at all being affected by it IMHO.

Bitcoin became what it is today especially thanks to its total decentralization. Why no other coin will ever be like bitcoin? Because we know who created it, we know that the creator owns a lot of its own coin, and sometimes they even have the power to change whatever they want. At that point we simply have a fiat currency under the form of a digital currency, nothing more than that, and that is something completely unnecessary and useless.

I'd say no. One of its edge is decentralization. It could still be a profitable investment but for sure it would more likely have a lower market value than its ATH. One reason is the benefit of decentralization. Just compare its market price to centralized cryptocurrencies and compare the difference on its volatility and its market price. Other than decentralization, one of the things which developed an interest towards this blockchain is because of its origin  which is why I do think Bitcoin will still have a higher market price than with stable coins but won't be enough to be as big as it is currently.

This information is wrong.

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Well, if Bitcoin was centralised in the sense that it was being operated like a banking institution or run like other firms, then the value would have been affected because of how the management would have been run. Another factor that contributes to the value of Bitcoin is its supply. Already, majority of people buy Bitcoin every day, and even if all the Total supply of Bitcoin were in circulation and perhaps all the Bitcoin were being distributed among all the Bitcoiners that we have, each person would not even have up to one Bitcoin. So, the supply and demand of Bitcoin is also one thing that keeps its value high.

This can be argued, take note that there are so many people who don't care if BTC is censorship resistant, permissionless or decentralized, these people just want to buy BTC through a centralized exchange and even hold it there to make revenue, and from my observation, these people are greater in number than those who use BTC in the way in which it was created for.

BTC was created to be a p2p network without a third party, but how many people trade BTC without a middleman involved in the trade, if BTC was centralized, and still maintains its fixed supply and volatility, it will have value because people will see they can make revenue from it, so there will be demand, but the user base of people who want a censorship resistant currency may not use it.

Bitcoin not only imports its value due to its decentralized nature but also involves a number of important regulators. Especially since the limited supply and no effect of inflation have any effect on its value.
If Bitcoin was centralized, then all its control system would be on a particular third party, so its demand and value in the market would decrease over time and eventually the value of Bitcoin would become zero and at some point it would disappear from the market.

You are not wrong in saying that supply and demand are the determinants of bitcoin value. But the demand for bitcoin is high and still growing very high because people like and need its decentralization. Imagine if bitcoin didn't decentralize and become centralized, would you need it? If we don't need it, the demand for it won't be high and its value won't be high.

I have always believed that it is bitcoin's decentralization that sets it apart from every other asset and has caused demand for it to increase, which will increase its value.

If bitcoin is centralised I doubt if it will be existing because being centralised it is just the easiest way for government to have power over it. Bitcoin becoming centralised won't have value because it will be controlled by human or a particular company. Satoshi knows if bitcoin is to be centralised currency it will failed currency which is not going to last and will be crashed in the market just like other centralised currency.

If you want to know if bitcoin will still have value if become a centralised,  just take a look of other  centralised crypto how they struggled with the market and could not survive the market.

Even if Bitcoin was slightly centralized, might it not still hold some intrinsic value? After all, many things we use daily, like shitty banking, are centralized yet still maintain value in our society.

You mention investors potentially losing confidence if Bitcoin were centralized, but arent investor behaviors unpredictable anyway? Just as one may argue that decentralization creates scarcity and security, another could posit that slight centralization might bring about stability and predictability. And while government regulations and restrictions might be seen negatively by many, they could also be a sign that digital currencies are gaining mainstream acceptance.

Your conclusion about the value derived from its decentralized nature, although resonating with the masses, seems slightly generalized. Centralization isn't the only factor affecting value. But again, whats value without some unpredictability?

It's either the government take it down with ease or they take over Bitcoin and use it to their own advantages, there will be more than manipulation from Bitcoin whales, the government will make sure they benefit the most out of Bitcoin.

I believe crypto is still a thing today because of Bitcoin, it's like the snake head, if you cut it off the whole body will die, Bitcoin is why crypto is still so much alive, and all the credit goes to Nakamoto for making Bitcoin a decentralized digital currency.

Bitcoin remains the undefeated champion for the government to kill, been decentralized wins.

The total amount of bitcoin supply is 21 million. The data seen on the market today shows that the number in circulation has reached more than 19 million. The closer to supply, the closer to scarcity bitcoin will be. When scarcity occurs, the value increases.
EFS has said that decentralization isn't the only thing that gives value to bitcoin and I confirmed it.

I think that you can understand very well because the difference between bitcoin and other cryptos is very easy to find if someone wants to look for it. Bitcoin brings freedom. With the decentralized nature of bitcoin, people find freedom.
Hopefully I'm not wrong in responding to your point.

Decentralization means that BTC is censorship resistant, permissionless and free for anyone, it is not what gives BTC all of its value. Fixed supply and demand is what gives BTC most its value, so as long as people still use BTC, it will have value. There are a lot of centralized currencies and institutions that are very valuable, that is because people make use of their product. So even if BTC was created exactly as it is today, but with a central control, it would still have its value, just that the user base of people who want a censorship resistant currency won't use it.

Instead of controlling, if bitcoin were to technically become centralized at any point, then it would be stopped in the first 10 seconds of its run by opponents.
During the journey, the flow of bitcoins continues to be concentrated to a few centralized services that have the potential to control circulation. Assuming it's in confiscation, that only adds to the scarcity of bitcoins in "active" circulation. It doesn't change the essence of bitcoin's decentralized nature and it will still have value.

When Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto it was immediately connected to the decentralized and my own blockchain in my understanding, which means that Bitcoin was created without any government of the country being able to control it. And for sure there are no miners who will waste time if it is not designed as it is now.

I don't know what came to your mind when you asked this question, what is centralization for you? because if you understood what this means you would surely not ask this post you made about Bitcoin.

A simple example that shows you the value of a centralized asset is to look at shitcoins.  have you seen any shitcoins that hold value and grow year after year like bitcoin? Or are they created and manipulated only by the powerful and wealthy?  a centralized asset can also be valuable but the benefits will go only to those who manipulate and control, not us. and that's what's going on in the altcoin market, most of the profits go to the scammers, the market makers, not the investors.  But for a decentralized asset like bitcoin, the opportunity to get rich will be divided equally among all those who know how to seize the opportunity.

Nope, it's completely opposite against your thought.

Fiat is centralized, but the government isn't kill fiat, but they're use the centralization to monopoly everything. So if Bitcoin is centralized, the government can adopt or make a partnership with Bitcoin and then control Bitcoin behind it.

The reason why government want to kill Bitcoin is decentralization and they can't fully control Bitcoin.

I mean if very centralized altcoins like Ethereum, BNB can have high prices, Bitcoin will have such high prices even if it changes from decentralized to centralized because it has many better contributors to its value.

Did you read my post?

I emphasized that many factors decide value of Bitcoin, not only centralization or decentralization, even I did not describe those factors. I wrote that if Bitcoin becomes centralized, it will have higher value than Ethereum, BNB as it has more better factors, and at least it will be about $2,000 that is a high value for Bitcoin before 2017 bull run.

I did my job well but you did not read, only want to make post for your quota.

If bitcoin was centralized, it would have been an opportunity for the government to bring its value down or kill bitcoin. If you look at after the creation of bitcoin till date,it has being facing so many challenges from the government either to ban it or to regulate it. All these wouldn't have taken them up to three months to achieve their aim. Meaning the government will still have controversy over the citizens funds in bitcoin and there will still be no financial freedom. I don't even think that they government will allow the price of bitcoin to soar as high as 69k last ATH. It will not be different from other shitcoins.

Being centralized because it is controlled by one large institution? how many sources does the institution have to prepare in order to be able to take over all Bitcoins including mining, because these institutions must be able to pump Bitcoin prices continuously up so as to convince the holders to sell them on the exchange but even that is not necessarily successful because Bitcoin holders have strong enough faith how this coin will remain decentralized even if someone is able to have more than 50% of the amount

The process of imitation carried out by other cryptocurrencies on Bitcoin is due to Bitcoin's commitment to maintaining decentralization of all forms of bids submitted. Unable to shake fundamental principles, they went their own way by copying Bitcoin to create other coins. From here we can judge for ourselves that it is Bitcoin's commitment to a large community that makes its value strong as a cryptocurrency.

And this is the answer, without Bitcoin there will never be altcoins.
Bitcoin is a currency that cannot be regulated like other currencies and does not need a third party in the transaction process.

Value and price are different.

If Bitcoin is centralized, obviously Bitcoin has no value anymore because it will kill the other usability. Bitcoin will not be pseudonymous, no privacy, can be controlled by the team, etc. Fixed supply is pointless, there are many centralized coin with fixed supply.

But Bitcoin price will not become 0 because many stupid people are still want to make money, just take a look with 99% centralized coins in CMC.

Centralized bitcoin no better than any FIAT because essentially they are the same thing. Bitcoin has two most important features.

1- Decentralized
2- (Semi) Private

Without these 2 features, we can't call it bitcoin.

You can send and receive USDT, USD, EUR and smiliar centralized shitcoins too. Just because you can do these, don't mean that they are better than bitcoin. They are not, because they not decentralized like bitcoin.

Only gold can compete with bitcoin in this department (decentralization) but then you can't send/receive gold like you do it with btc so gold fails at mobility which kills the purpose of being a currency.

Bitcoin is more decentralized now than it was a couple of years back. Remember prior to the China ban? Most of the hash rate was from those Chinese farms. Now it’s more scattered all over the planet which is what we need.

Also Bitcoin is not like Tether or USDC which a centralized user can freeze funds. The BTC can never be frozen onchain, same with the native ETH.

The point is that bitcoin cannot become centralized, so let's not try to make predictions that are unrealistic and will never happen. Bitcoin was designed as a decentralized currency to overcome the disadvantages caused by a centralized monetary system. So let's use those advantages to our advantage rather than hypothesize when it will never happen.

Do you see any assets or currencies that are centralized and controlled by governments or companies or individuals with good results? And if bitcoin becomes centralized, it will end up similar to fiat, you can look at fiat to find the answer yourself.

Can a centralised Bitcoin survive? The government or tradfi guys might destroy it before it has value.

Was looking for this because this was my first thought regarding OP's definition of bitcoin being centralized. I think the reason that this will fail though is that a lot of us would caught wind of this probably and persuade each individual to try and fight that centralization attempt by this malicious entities and I think that there's still more individual hodling bitcoins compared to companies.

Of course there are concerns that arise that may cause us to think that bitcoin becomes centralized like a monopoly in mining but as a community fighting actively against it and the nature of bitcoin being decentralized, it's close to impossible for that concern to ever happen.

If Bitcoin were centralized, it wouldn't have reached where it is right now. It wouldn't have become this successful. However, observing the current trend in the entire cryptocurrency market, the twist would probably be that even if Bitcoin was centralized but it was an altcoin which came out after a truly decentralized cryptocurrency became popular and widely adopted, it would still have reached a certain level of success. We only have to look at the current top cryptocurrencies to realize this. Many of them are centralized.

Being decentralized is something that define a lot for Bitcoin and in case this can be not true anymore then of course its value will plummet. Being decentralized means that nobody can be able to control Bitcoin no matter if big financial institutions or money individuals can be also investing into Bitcoin. Being decentralized, no government entity can be able to maneuvered Bitcoin according to its interest...and that is why many people think that Bitcoin is eventually unstoppable. And this decentralized standard is the gauge when we talk of other crypto-based platforms.

If it turns out to be centralized then no doubt that people or the community would jump off ship.. We arent that blind on why Bitcoin do rank #1 in the marketplace? Because its something that cant be
cracked down in terms of its codes or whatever technical side aspects and there's no way that it could be stopped even with the government on which it do really give out that kind of trust.
Its true that even on some altcoins in the market do still really be able to get that value or price despite on being centralized which means that there would really be still investors who would really be mainly supporting it.We cant really just that tell if Bitcoin would really be coming into a point that becoming centralized then we cant really be sure whether it would be still mainly supported or would really be trying out to transfer on totally anonymous and decentralized coins like Zcash or Xmr.

I'll just take this simply.

With all of those tokens, altcoins and projects that are centralized, they do even have a value and market capitalization. So, if Bitcoin was centralized and made like that in the first place, it could still have value but we will never know on how long it will survive.

Just as those centralized projects that we're seeing come by to the market and then eventually will be gone. Some may probably have survived but it all ends up to unknown situations on what actually will happen into these questions of scenarios.

The concept of some people always go that bitcoin being centralised it will devalue bitcoin, but from the creation of bitcoin satoshi have already know that if bitcoin being centralised they will be enough challenges and competitions in bitcoin and that is why satoshi made bitcoin to decentralized with the Co team, even though it was centralized bitcoin would have still have value, even now that bitcoin is still decentralized do you know that people still be scared of bitcoin and they also devalue bitcoin, so nothing can be created and it fails to have people that will become antagonist to it, op should know that

Decentralization isn't the only thing that brings value to Bitcoin. Even if Bitcoin was more centralized, it would hold on in this market. Probably the target audience and user base would be different.
Certainly Bitcoin would have monetary value but not much of the philosophy behind it.

Weird I wasn't assuming such sort of topics still can be created and such queries exist in this timeline as well. So buddy point of notice here is OgNasty from which depart or I would say school thought you are asking this question is it for the supply, hash rate, mining pools, Nodes Distribution, Market Platforms (Exchanges & Firms, etc), or the development. In a few words, Bitcoin is far more decentralized when it will be compared. That's why it's called BTC BTC. Haha seems like I said something in flow it's BTC because it's BTC.

Anway for your question there are some factors that give a point to people thinking for Bitcoin to be centralized which in a theoretical manner can be proved but with the actual resources it's near impossible.


What?? Is this a point to prove that Bitcoin won't lose it value, What the Altcoins had to do with the Bitcoin valuation or in reverse methodology as well, Do you mean Bitcoin won't lose its value to 100$ because there are other currencies having lower value compared to Bitcoin? Brother, you could have said that BTC won't lose because there is a large community standing behind it, Because it's not easy to manipulate the resources, Becasue Bitcoin always stands on the top because of its market capital, or anything making more sense.

Not an offensive motive but really I wasn't expecting such type of explanation from a senior. 

How does decentralization decide Bitcoin scarcity?

It relates to security but not scarcity that is decided by the initial design of controlled supply by Satoshi Nakamoto.

If Bitcoin becomes centralized, it won't lose all its value. Have less value or zero value will depend on many factors and not easy to say now. Altcoins like Ethereum, BNB still have their values which are lower than Bitcoin value so I believe Bitcoin value won't drop to $100 or $10 or $1 just because it becomes more centralized.

How is the 21 million Bitcoin cap defined and enforce

If bitcoin is centralized, Satoshi would not have thought up to the way of using cryptography, he would have just created bitcoin in a way that the government would have taken it down.

Know that other cryptocurrencies mimic bitcoin but they are getting to be centralized, bitcoin created the way which they still use to function. If not for bitcoin, there will also not be altcoins.

What is your definition of becoming centralized? Are you talking about all the coins being in the hands of large investment firms, or the mining network being controlled by a single company or country? Maybe you’re talking about the development team being in the pocket of a single company? In all of these scenarios, Bitcoin is setup to resist, but I’m sure I’d that failed then it’s value would suffer.

Bitcoin value is tied to it's decentralized nature and the principle it was founded. if Bitcoin were to become centralized, it would likely have a significant impact on its value. the decentralized nature of Bitcoin is a key factor in it's value. Bitcoin decentralization have contributed to it scarcity and security. all of this which are factors that influence it's value.

if Bitcoin were to become centralized, it could raise concerns about the control, and the investors might loss confidence in it's ability to remain a reliable store of value and a medium of exchange. centralization could also make it suspicious to government regulation and restrictions, which could further impact on it's value.

in conclusion, Bitcoin value is derived from its decentralized nature, which is closely with it's ideal, and any move towards centralization could fundamentally alter it's core and diminish it's value proposition.