This was one of the most honest and fact-based essays I've seen from a crypto believer.

Of course, the debates about energy efficiency/waste of crypto is massively beside the point.

PoW minted coins/blocks is now about as centralized an asset as there is. In other words, the "decentralization" of crypto is fully mythical. Or a lie, if you like.

Nic Carter suggests that 63% of Bitcoin is mined by China. It's actually generally agreed to be higher...At least 66%+.

Also, as Nic points out, the entire tech stack is Chinese...from ASIC design/manufacture to rig manufacture on up to mining warehouse build operations.

So how is Bitcoin (and pretty much all PoW crypto) NOT centralized?

China, for all its accomplishments, is still a totalitarian state that can do whatever it wants with crypto mining, just like it's done what it wants to Alibaba, TenCent and Hong Kong. And just like what it did by outlawing all crypto transactions for all Chinese citizens and putting all blockchain projects on government-run/monitored infrastructure.

It is utterly baffling that crypto believers are not getting out of crypto because Satoshi's dream is dead and more and more mainstream institutions are falling into the apparent trap.

Unlike the vast amount of hard goods that China supplies to the rest of the world, trifling with those would be a giant hit to their economy and a setback to Chinese standards of living.

Shutting down a small and specialized activity like crypto mining at just the right time would have few consequences for China and serious ones for western financial institutions that are becoming more involved.

Regardless, please, say good bye to the fiction of "decentralization". It's dead whether you acknowledge it or not.