For me (outsider) its hard to answer this question, but BTC is also centralised then, some Bitcoin Payment Providers got an patent on how they handle Bitcoin transactions.
Is BTC centralised because of this? Maybe its a strange example..
If u want to be serious, if you want companies gonna take you serious, you must be serious too. With this patent u know a lil bit where ETN is standing (; on a serious position).
The way how you look at this patent, its a lil bit negative (well, i dont know if u are negative, it looks like that haha!), but there are only positive things what i can imagine. There are many problems with many coins why they would never be THE coin where u can do worldwide payments.
If you look what ETN already did, what they are doing and what they are going to do, it solves all those problems.
U can not be only there for miners and there things on exchanges, u must be and think bigger then just buy/sell on exchange. To do the reall big thing, u must think big and ur actions must also be big. Centralised or decentralised is not the big matter.
I dont say ETN is centralised, i also don't say ETN is decentralised.
Actually your example in the beginning isn't a good one, because whatever a Bitcoin Payment Provider makes is out of Bitcoins reach, obviously.
Maybe you don't understand my point. I totally agree with you that a serious company can at all patent whatever, make huge developements, whatever, but have in mind that as soon as it's a company decentralization is totally gone, even no more worth discussing it.....
And i have no problem with it at all, it's a different approach with companies, patents, that like, but than the word "decentralized" is total missleading. Actually even the blockchain is not really decentralized as at any moment the dev/company can change an algo whenever to whatever he wants. Have in mind that on this alone a debatting/discussion is being held on many forums and projects!
And i'am not negatively posting, no way, i just want to be aware on what exactly is the case here. If you (just as an example) only care about a half way decentralized blockchain, so it be, but others, like me eventually put more thoughts into an advertised "as" decentralized project....
And if you say decentralized/centralized is no big matter, so it be, me personally even agrees to that and in many real cases i would prefer a centralized project, but than again, no need to use "decentralized" if it's not.