Centralization vs. Decentralization In China
Some of the smartest and brightest people on this planet are Chinese.But when it comes to Bitcoin, they are really smart. I like their product engineering in such things like Bitmain's Antminer series , which I highly recommend, they are true work horses! And also obviously noteworthy is the fact that China basically makes some 90% or better of ALL computer hardware components.
But not only are they highly skilled at the manufacturing and hardware technical side of Bitcoin, Chinese exchanges involving the Yuan account for some 70% or more of global bitcoin trading-according to which stats you look at (from sources such as Blockchain.info). Also, a similar number can be attached to Bitcoin Mining. And therein lies a fact: Bitcoin has become somewhat "centralized" in this way, basically centralized by China.
Don't get me wrong: I fully support Bitcoin, and love the concept of a 'decentralized' payment system, where a person truly owns his/her 'money' by way of Bitcoin. There's no denying that Bitcoin is a superior form of monetary value transaction via "peer-to-peer" (basically anyone can send to anybody within the Bitcoin network/protocol framework). But there's no denying also that China has a lot of power over Bitcoin!
We saw that recently when the the People's Bank of China (PBOC) urged investors to take a rational approach to investing] in crypto-currency (along with numerous meetings between exchanges in China and government officials, where one is left to wonder what the description and definition of 'rational' exactly implies). And then we watched as BTC tumbled in price,from about $1150 USD to the current price of $760 USD. I don't understand the rationale for that, but maybe it's me.
In any case, this whole sequence of events seems counter-intuitive to the ideals of Bitcoin. One particular part of the world should not have so much influence over Bitcoin, whether it's the USA, China or any other country!Centralization is occurring in an odd form: Not within the software/hardware platforms, but rather where the concentration of power is located is once again within the political 'framework'.
