# Last edited on 2014-05-19 12:31:08 by stolfilocal
# POSTED

[quote author=Adrian-x link=topic=178336.msg6807770#msg6807770 date=1400471322]
Jorge here is a paper just issued on the topic: http://www.ofnumbers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Learning-from-Bitcoins-past.pdf. 
[/quote]
Thanks, but I posted that link here yesterday  :)  It was linked from an article posted by @Walsoraj.

[quote author=Adrian-x link=topic=178336.msg6807770#msg6807770 date=1400471322]
also published is a piece on other hurdles: www.bitcoinmagazine.com/12914/bitcoins-made-in-china
[ ... ]
At the end of the day we will be free to choose, greedy miners won't survive neither will greedy bankers.
[/quote]

Up to 10--15 years ago, many long-term projections were made based on Moore's law, which was then interpreted as clock speed increasing exponentially.  While CPU manufacturers competed for clock speed, their number decreased until only very few were left when the clocks had reached 2-3 GHz.  All of a sudden the speed stopped increasing.  Could it have been really phyiscal limits, or was it an agreement among the manufacturers to stop that competition, for their common interest? At that point the market was no longer free, various factors prevented some new company from coming into the market with a faster CPU.

One hurdle that is often mentioned but apparenty not resolved is the concentration of mining into a few large corporations.  IIRC it is already the case that 3-4 companies have more than 51% of the network's harshate.  A mining cartel that was able to keep competition out would end up being just as nasty as the banking cartel is today, and will surely cooperate with them on fees, government corruption, etc.

Banking would be wonderful if it were a really free market.  In particular, international money transmittal fees would be a tiny fraction of a percent, and there would be no economical justification for bitcoin.  Will bitcoin mining continue to be a free market?