This follows the principle that in a gold rush, you want to be the one selling shovels. Bitmain is the one selling shovels (mining machines) for the Bitcoin boom.
Except it is well known that Bitmain mines with its shovels before selling them. People have reported receiving their machines with dust in them and you can see the changes in mining difficulty corresponding to when they in-house mine and then ship the ASICS out.
Anyway, Bitmain better watch out. Cryptocurrencies are now regularly implementing hash function changes. GPU mining is dying, but not to ASICs but to the more configurable FPGAs instead.
It is not the strongest that survive, but the ones most responsive to change.
That's true. They generally sell their previous generation and mine with the next generation hardware. That way they won't be left sitting with obsolete hardware like other mining companies.
Considering the sheer computing (hashing) power they command internally (mining operations) as well as externally (specialized devices like Antminer), it's more likely that they are in control.
You think "they" are the Chinese government? That's... very much not correct. China's history in "regulating" cryptocurrency is something I think you should research and see what threat it poses their pegged currency markets and restrictions on the population in trading money; restrictions that very much Americans do not have.
We are free to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, or exchange USD for pretty much any other currency in the world, and most goods/services. Chinese citizens are, well, not.
Bitcoin is not something a free economy with mostly free trade fears. It is something a controlled, planned market very much fears.
Exactly this. This is really one gigantic wealth transfer from the USA to a few semi-Chinese entities, btw.
The 27 year old American accountant who desires to quit his desk job will send $4,000 of his salary (or more) to buy some Chinese-made machines. The 200 or so major shareholders of Bitmain profit instantly.
The accountant barely profits on his transaction. [1]
[1] some will profit more than others depending on length of time holding assets, but statistically someone ultimately holds the bag.
