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  
"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.

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