Topic: What if governments make Bitcoin centralized? - page 9. (Read 1084 times)

It depends on what goals the leadership of a particular country will pursue.

But what you say, I think, is applicable only to capitalist countries. If a country like China really wants to harm the Bitcoin machine, then it will not spare resources to do it. But this is extremely unlikely, since such actions do not promise China either financial or strategic prospects. In addition, the moment is missed ... since significant mining capacities have already been exported from China, not to mention the fact that miners will not destroy their source of income.

Not the way you imagine, but pause for a moment and think, isn't Bitcoin somewhat centralized even today? I do not mean exclusively where most crypto miners are located (which is difficult to determine precisely), but the fact that several globally positioned crypto exchanges hold several million BTC in their possession. Governments can always reach for a measure to seize all that BTC, for some reason they can invent at any given time.


As others have already said, it is a little too late for anyone to play with these things, because not only about 90% of the BTC is mined, but in less than 10 years that percentage will reach 99%. In addition, it is inconceivable to me that the US, China, UK, India, or Russia will one day declare a common currency - all these countries are very fierce in defending their national interests, and among those interests is the domestic currency.

The EU has a common currency, but some countries that have been members for a long time do not want to give up their currencies (Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic), so even though we are very pro-Bitcoin here, it is more than it is foolish to expect that such a scenario would materialize even in the distant future. I tend to believe that in some 150 to 200 years, money as such will cease to exist - but again, I may be watching too much science fiction (Star Trek)

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But didn’t China ban all crypto miners a few months ago, and most of them left the country? Maybe they just want us to be convinced of it, and at the same time, they are planning a 51% attack?

China had made this thing first and they create Digital Yuan after Bitcoin. They'll make themselves protect their own benefits and have nothing to share with others, and this will happen to the other countries someday. And maybe, all the countries will make their own digital currencies just for the sake of not to replace with crypto. Like, no matter what we do, no matter how powerful the country they are, this could never happen and Bitcoin will remain decentralized.

BTC as One World Currency Why would they even think of that in the first place? Each country will always prioritize their own national interest and will continue to protect their own currency. Hard to think they will ever unite just to control Bitcoin when they cannot do it to fiat for decades/centuries. Of course, there is a slim chance but that would probably take an alien invasion.

A government adopting Bitcoin, and then paying through the teeth to have enough resources to maintain over 51% share of the mining power is even more silly than using a currency which you can infinitely print. Though, this hasn't stopped them in the past to be fair.

Nah, in all seriousness the expense required to maintain that sort of share in the network would greatly outweigh the benefits. It would be a better idea to try, and convince the mining pools that they need to follow some sort of law which gives the government control of their pools, and even that is far fetched.

Basically, dkbit98 said it above. If they consider Bitcoin a threat to their existing model, they'll likely evolve that system into a sort of government backed cryptocurrency, which will have all the same limitations or minor variations to what fiat is today, except their marketing plan will be far greater than anyone else's. So, in simple terms they wouldn't centralise Bitcoin, because in all reality it's impossible to do. Instead, they would attempt to replace it with a similar system, but something they can control.

I mean, most people are already converting to digital finances which will make the transition easier.

Edward Bernays taught us you don't have to destroy anything, instead you convince the people that your solution is a better one, and with the government's marketing budget, they''ll be able to easily convince the general public.

He also suggested that lack of acknowledgement usually brings more harm than good, and you can see that several governments, in fact probably at this point most governments in the world have acknowledged Bitcoin, and set certain regulations such as taxes.

I can imagine bitcoin becoming less decentralised if it gets large and stable enough for energy producers to mine it (but then I also think there are many more producers of renewable energy now than there were/are of coal/oil producers so we might not see that happening much).

I don't think a government would care too much to find a way to destroy crypto,  and sure someone like china, Russia or the US might want to take it down/control it just to prove they can but what happens when the algorithm changes and all the devs vote on it as well as a rewind (one government gets left with a bunch of equipment they can't use and the chain continues)? Also, stopping bitcoin from working stops bitcoin from working, it won't stop eth or other chains so what if all the btc is temporarily moved to another coin for a while as a token (even if it crashes "making it crash" and "completely blocking it" are two different things)?

They can if Chinese government, example takes over all the hashrate from miners in China. I don't think it will happen. They can not do such thing in dark ways and don't let the world know about that. They will slap on their faces by doing this.

However I don't feel surprise if governments in nations that are sanctioned like Iran, North Korea have run Bitcoin mining farms. They have nuclear power and the Internet. What they need is ASICs and here they go with Bitcoin mining.

What you ask is not impossible but I don't think it will happen in near future. Moreover, if it happens, we might see reaction from the community. Governments are always behind the community with creative idea.

I am not so sure that this ever become a real issue.  First off the United States isn't anywhere close to having bitcoin become any sort of currency for its citizens.  With the dollar being the worlds standard, they'd honestly be crazy to jeopardize that in any way.  Secondly by the time that they would enter the market I don't believe they would even be able to purchase that much in order to make it centralized in any way.  Just my 2.

This will never happen to Bitcoin and governments won't waste time mining and taking control over Bitcoin that is 90% mined already,
they can just create their own centralized digital junk currencies with infinite supply and with shutdown button for anyone who is not obedient.
Look what is happening in the world now and you will see that is the way they are going.

Have you ever thought about Bitcoin becoming centralized someday? The ever-growing mainstream adoption of Bitcoin worldwide will only lead us closer to such scenario. To our surprise, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The more popular the cryptocurrency becomes, the more countries will be tempted to follow El Salvador's footsteps. Imagine governments making their own mining facilities, or even buying pre-established mining companies in order to gain a piece of the pie. If they manage to control more than 51% of Bitcoin's hashrate, the cryptocurrency will effectively become centralized. That, and the fact that they already control centralized exchanges is a very alarming situation for the future of Bitcoin.

Of course, the only way governments worldwide will be able to control 51% of Bitcoin's hashrate is if they unanimously agree on using Bitcoin is a "One World Currency". This may all sound crazy, but we cannot ignore it from happening in the future.

What are your thoughts? Will Bitcoin be able to remain decentralized for the foreseeable future? Or not? What do you think will happen if governments fully embrace Bitcoin as the replacement of Fiat? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.