In fact, you have to change marketing seriously. Byteball it is not decentralized, and never will by design.
The cause is simply: when I want to become a witness, I have to ask EVERY NETWORK NODE (controlling byteball main hub would do this easier).
Very different is the case when I want to become a miner, I DON'T HAVE TO ASK ANYONE.
Because of that, PoW is decentralized, and Byteball not.
Byteball is a DISTRIBUTED database with twelve high reputable nodes that help network to reach consensus.
That twelve nodes FORM a single point of failure, and the power those witnesses have over the network is not related to this fact.
Don't pretend to be what you are not.
Hi barborrico,
As I told previously to pineapple express, everybody can run a witness node and set it as its own permuted witness with the possibility of keeping the chain healty until the genesis unit with its own reality perception. Better, we can be the lighthouse of many. So, yes, you can be a non-official witness without asking permission to anyone and who knows if you'll not be one of official witnesses one day.
Bye
Of course, I can TRY to be a witness without asking permission. A witness node does not differ on a normal one. But why doing it? Only a big name can be witness in practice. It does not happen magically. It is related to have a reputation to lose if the witness starts to bad behaving (although only by colluding with another 5 or more). So, no, I can't be a non-official witness. Be elected by nodes is the same as asking for permission to all nodes for being on their witnesses list. I can only have that permission by having a reputation to lose.
I trust byteball.org/bb default hub, if it suggests me a witness change, I will accept.
In any case, I will change my witnesses list if it is incompatible with network.