public inbox for bitcoindev@googlegroups.com
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Jim Phillips <jim@ergophobia.org>
To: Pindar Wong <pindar.wong@gmail.com>
Cc: bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] A reason we can all agree on to increase block size
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2015 23:33:31 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CANe1mWwMJwnyukr9PDuNKi+-ZHfzUT-ez+M9u3f2Fj0yiwhGyQ@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAM7BtUo6M39TG_F0MC7tHYhpvg9whEj=qT3Dxj5yj0Lwa_ezOQ@mail.gmail.com>

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4050 bytes --]

I realize that my argument may have come across as anti-Chinese, but I can
assure you that my concerns are not nationalist or racist in nature, so I
apologize if they came across as such. I was raised under another
oppressive regime, the US government, so I am sympathetic to the problems
of the Chinese people.

I am in fact only concerned with the very real fact that a majority of the
Bitcoin network's hashing power is centralized within the political borders
of one country and consequently the entire Bitcoin economy is at risk of
political manipulation. I have seen frequent instances within my own
homeland where the government has seized control over private businesses
through draconian regulation. I have witnessed in other countries where
businesses are seized and nationalized more directly. I am concerned that
the Chinese government might decide to nationalize the Bitcoin mines within
its borders, and what they might do with 57% of the network hashing power.

If it were any other country I would be equally concerned. But it's not any
other country. It's China. And I don't trust the Chinese government any
more than I trust any other government not to take actions that might harm
Bitcoin.
On Aug 2, 2015 8:21 PM, "Pindar Wong" <pindar.wong@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Jim,
>
> Thank you for sharing your view w.r.t. the so called 'Chinese Miners'.
>
> Diversity of opinion, and mining, are IMHO both good and it's indeed a
> free world.... so others who wish to mine bitcoin should be encouraged  to
> make the capital and technical investments to do so.
>
> May I ask what is your technical suggestion to move this discussion
> forward beyond your anti-Chinese/anti-China rhetoric?   e.g. I would be
> particularly grateful if you could share your  views w.r.t. colluding miner
> attacks in draft 0.5.9. of Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja's 'Lightning
> network' paper, found here:-
>
> http://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf
>
> Respectfully,
>
> p.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 4:02 AM, Jim Phillips via bitcoin-dev <
> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>
>> China is a communist country. It is no secret that all "capitalist"
>> enterprises are essentially State controlled, or at the very least are
>> subject to nationalization should the State deem it necessary. Most ASIC
>> chips are manufactured in China, so they are cheap and accessible to
>> Chinese miners. Electricity is subsidized and essentially free. Cooling is
>> not an issue since large parts of China are mountainous and naturally cool.
>> In short the Chinese miners have HUGE advantages over all other mining
>> operations. This is probably why, between just the top 4 Chinese miners,
>> the People's Republic of China effectively controls 57% of all the Bitcoin
>> being mined.
>>
>> The ONLY disadvantage the Chinese miners have in competing with the rest
>> of the world is bandwidth. China has poor connectivity with the rest of the
>> world, and Chinese miners have said that an increase in the block size
>> would be detrimental to them. I say, GOOD! Most of the free world has
>> enough bandwidth to be able to handle larger blocks. We need to take
>> advantage of that fact to get mining out of the centralized control of the
>> Chinese.
>>
>> If you're truly worried about larger blocks causing centralization, think
>> about how, by restricting blocksize, you're enabling the Communist Chinese
>> government to maintain centralized control over 57% of the Bitcoin hashing
>> power.
>>
>> --
>> *James G. Phillips IV*
>> <https://plus.google.com/u/0/113107039501292625391/posts>
>> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/ergophobe>
>>
>> *"Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of
>> immortals." -- David Ogilvy*
>>
>>  *This message was created with 100% recycled electrons. Please think
>> twice before printing.*
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org
>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>>
>>
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 5622 bytes --]

  reply	other threads:[~2015-08-03  4:33 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2015-08-02 21:02 [bitcoin-dev] A reason we can all agree on to increase block size Jim Phillips
2015-08-03  1:21 ` Pindar Wong
2015-08-03  4:33   ` Jim Phillips [this message]
2015-08-03  3:13 ` odinn
2015-08-03  6:34 ` Adam Back
2015-08-03  6:53   ` Jim Phillips
2015-08-04 10:53     ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-03  7:16   ` Simon Liu
2015-08-03  7:34     ` Hector Chu
2015-08-03  7:53       ` Adam Back
2015-08-03  8:06         ` Hector Chu
2015-08-03  8:20           ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-08-03  8:31             ` Hector Chu
2015-08-03  8:38               ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-08-03  8:52                 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-03  9:01                   ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-08-03  9:22                     ` Hector Chu
2015-08-03  7:46     ` Adam Back
2015-08-03 13:57   ` Michael Ruddy

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=CANe1mWwMJwnyukr9PDuNKi+-ZHfzUT-ez+M9u3f2Fj0yiwhGyQ@mail.gmail.com \
    --to=jim@ergophobia.org \
    --cc=bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org \
    --cc=pindar.wong@gmail.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox