Could #Bitcoin mining become centralized like #Google or #Apple, specifically due to the network effect?
Discussion
Big chunk of mining is in the hands of a few US public companies with access to the fiat spigot
I would argue that it’s in the hands more of Bitmain and it’s many white labels.
Hardware naturally centralizes due to benefits of specialization, and economies of scale. You are correct there are even fewer commodity sha hash machine manufacturers.
However it is the mining cos which decide to which pool to point, which arbitrary rules to enforce.