I believe that within a year BTC will get in trouble due to centralization of future ASICs. Even now and more so month after month people cannot buy ASIC individually. The scenario which seems the only possible going forward is this:
* all future ASICs will be deployed by large companies working on a thin margin
* some of the old ASICs will continue to operate until the profit runs off and only very few will operate after this point on free electricity
* it is much cheaper to look after large amounts of hardware in a dedicated setup, hence data-centers will be the place to run ASICs, thus concentration of processing power in several places
* ASIC companies will become regulated as a special sort of business crucial to the economy
* end of freedom
that's why we need to hold into scrypt alts (or something similar, really p2p) and be ready to pick up the fallen flag of freedom
Where do you see any inability of people unable to buy ASICS individually? I see the exact opposite. Every month a new entrant in the market with better and faster and way cheaper ASICS.
Look at Cointerra and hashfast, they're offering rigs for a small fraction of what they cost just months ago and they're way better.
So why can't individuals buy these ASICS, what's stopping them? If you mean that corporations with millions of dollars will also buy them then my question is: what's stopping those same corporations from "centralizing" GPU farms? Why can't they use some of their millions to buy GPU's or better yet, just add them to their current server farms and then drive away all the scrypt miners?
And there is nothing expensive about "looking after" just one ASIC. You really don't have to look after anything with 1 ASIC or 100 ASICS.
And of course ASIC companies will become regulated, is AMD not regulated and of course Bitcoin and all forms of money will eventually be regulated - or do you think they'll regulate Bitcoin but not DigitalCoin or Litecoin?
Sorry, but all this logic doesn't hold water.* End of Freedom: You got this part right. That's what this whole digital money project is all about. Totally empowering the banks, corporations and the govt and completely enslaving the masses, and it's working out perfectly.
Look at the J.P. Morgan Chase letter I just posted on my NUGGETS thread. The banks are actively pushing people into Cryptos now. This means the Bitcoin ETF is coming next month, December at the latest and any coin without a plan will be crushed by this negative correlation as Bitcoin will jump to $500 in the first 30 days after the ETF license.