> It seems to me like this requirement of cheap energy only centralizes mining to those few who can afford to remotely locate hardware.
You're overthinking and confusing yourself. Locating energy off grid is far cheaper than connecting a source to a grid. It's a free voluntary global market and it is a competition, obviously. Like any competition, those who are uncompetitive either find a way to compete or accept they will lose.
> If China has the cheapest energy and 80% of the miners in the world pay to physically locate their rigs there, can't a single country take over the entire network at a whim?
Hypothetical and immaterial. If no one else in the whole world can compete with China's cost of energy production then we have much bigger problems to focus on than mere bitcoin mining, for China will simply leapfrog the rest of human civilization technologically and economically.
You're overthinking and confusing yourself. Locating energy off grid is far cheaper than connecting a source to a grid. It's a free voluntary global market and it is a competition, obviously. Like any competition, those who are uncompetitive either find a way to compete or accept they will lose.
> If China has the cheapest energy and 80% of the miners in the world pay to physically locate their rigs there, can't a single country take over the entire network at a whim?
Hypothetical and immaterial. If no one else in the whole world can compete with China's cost of energy production then we have much bigger problems to focus on than mere bitcoin mining, for China will simply leapfrog the rest of human civilization technologically and economically.
Also, see: - https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/06/22/go-west-bitcoin-u...
- https://www.coindesk.com/business/2020/05/19/the-last-word-o...