Sorry if the topic title is sort of "Gloom and Doom", but it's a genuine question. I came across this write up about BlackRock when I was randomly browsing the internet on topics about the history of different VCs and asset managers,
Meet BlackRock, the company that owns the world and the “fourth branch of government” with $9 trillion in assets under management
BlackRock made headlines last month after the company spent $6 billion to buy single-family homes and turn them into rental properties, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. In most cases, BlackRock even paid more money above the sellers’ asking price, killing the dream of homeownership for the middle class.
In just 33 years, BlackRock has grown from nothing to becoming the world’s largest and most trusted asset manager and the company that owns the world. The firm has also become an increasingly influential Wall Street player in Washington, DC, and a revolving door between finance and politics. Today, at least three of BlackRock’s leaders now hold prominent roles in President Joe Biden’s cabinet.
Given the company’s habit of forming shadow cabinets ahead of presidential transitions and its involvement in the new Federal reserve programs, Bloomberg went as far as calling BlackRock our “fourth branch of government.”
https://techstartups.com/2021/08/10/meet-blackrock-company-owns-world-fourth-branch-government-9-trillion-assets-management/ Here's a research paper opening a debate if BlackRock, and other large asset managers, are "fourth branch" OR actually "first branch" of government,
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Ertl4/publication/372824190_BlackRock_Co_Fourth_or_First_Branch_of_Government/links/64c96a2ab7d5e40f331ad0f2/BlackRock-Co-Fourth-or-First-Branch-of-Government.pdf
OK, now that we have the same understanding of what BlackRock actually is and what they are capable of, this is what they filed in their registration statement for their ETF,
In the event of a hard fork of the Bitcoin network, the Sponsor will, as permitted by the terms of the Trust Agreement, use its sole discretion to determine, in good faith, which peer-to-peer network, among a group of incompatible forks of the Bitcoin network, is generally accepted as the Bitcoin network and should therefore be considered the appropriate network for the Trust’s purposes.
The Sponsor will base its determination on whatever factors it deems relevant, including but not limited to, the Sponsor’s beliefs regarding expectations of the core developers of bitcoin, users, services, businesses, miners and other constituencies, as well as the actual continued acceptance of, mining power on, and community engagement with, the Bitcoin network, or whatever other factors it deems relevant.
There is no guarantee that the Sponsor will choose the digital asset that is ultimately the most valuable fork, and the Sponsor’s decision may adversely affect the value of the Shares as a result. The Sponsor may also disagree with Shareholders, the Bitcoin Custodian, other service providers, the Index Administrator, cryptocurrency exchanges, or other market participants on what is generally accepted as bitcoin and should therefore be considered “bitcoin” for the Trust’s purposes, which may also adversely affect the value of the Shares as a result.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1980994/000143774923017574/bit20230608_s1.htm Is it actually possible that BlackRock could co-opt Bitcoin by, hiring their own developers - probably even hire some of the Core Developers, incentivize a hash war, convince/buy into the economic majority to cooperate, start a fork, and declare their fork as Bitcoin?