Bitcoin Decentralization Debate

Comments debate whether Bitcoin is truly decentralized or controlled by a small group of miners, developers, large holders, or consensus mechanisms, challenging its core promise of resisting central authority.

📉 Falling 0.2x Finance & Crypto
3,960
Comments
17
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#2781
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Keywords

US GP JD LIBOR BTC USD B2X CHILDREN bitcoin decentralized consensus control power controlled btc percent coins authority

Sample Comments

Retric Jul 13, 2017 View on HN

Effectively 4 people, when they agree, completely control bitcoin. That's more centralized than the US dollar.

sdfghswe Mar 27, 2023 View on HN

Wait, I thought bitcoin was decentralized?

Macross8299 Jun 26, 2019 View on HN

Doesn't that run contrary to the idea of Bitcoin being decentralized?

cyanydeez Sep 23, 2025 View on HN

bitcoin is decentralized in name only.

dehrmann May 24, 2021 View on HN

Miners control bitcoin more than people realize.

olalonde Nov 9, 2023 View on HN

No one controls Bitcoin. The people who fed you that story are simply trying to pump shitcoins.

tonysdg Apr 18, 2018 View on HN

Wasn't part of the promise of Bitcoin that no single entity or cabal would control it? It would be a distributed platform, owned by the masses?

kevin_thibedeau Jun 18, 2019 View on HN

It's a self-imposed hegemony. Bitcoin is controlled by the consensus of all users.LIBOR was "decentralized". Then we found out that they were all colluding together.

Synaesthesia Oct 6, 2022 View on HN

If bitcoin/crypto was going to do something about centralisation, it would have by now. Bitcoin us a great idea, but it doesn't change anything about how we organise the economy, how we write contracts, the relationships between the powerful entities, and everything else. It just a really nifty financial concept.I don't see how this is different.

BMSmnqXAE4yfe1 Aug 17, 2020 View on HN

Bitcoin is really about power and control, not about trust. In many aspects it's a rebellion of coders against the MBAs and lawyers.