Jim writes in about The cycle of centralization

Hey gents,

I listen on my walks and bike rides, but I always forget to send feedback. Maybe a "boost" would be more efficient and allow for a more immediate response? Wouldn't it be cool to be able to send a boost that references a point of time in the episode? I digress.

Anyways, Chris has been talking a lot about decentralization in different contexts, and I wanted to add that I think this is part of the oscillation of capitalism in-general. It seems like industries have a tendency to centralize over-time, like gravity if you will, for a variety of reasons. It's not just because a dominant player buys out others, but it's also because there is a certain economy of scale that lowers the price of the products/services, which also coincides with lower barriers of entry for new users/customers. Users want the most with the least amount of effort, and someone will always come around to offer that, leading to centralization.

This routinely happens with technology, and I think even cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, while decentralized now, will become centralized. As mining becomes more and more expensive, few players will be involved in mining and won't be able to sustain on transaction fees alone without pooling the resources. Even with the lightning network overlaying the Bitcoin network, the underlay network will become centralized. On the consumer side, you can easily see this happening with companies like Coinbase, Robinhood, Cash App, etc. (assuming legacy banking systems don't start offering cryptocurrency services).

Technology will then oscillate back and something will breakout to decentralize once again. Like Batman and the Joker, they're doomed to do this forever. This is a feature, not a bug.