That a dictator from the latter could single-handedly cause such a contraction in the network doesn’t necessarily undermine the thesis that this more decentralized, diversified geographic spread is more secure. After all, the Kazakh hashrate closure – most likely temporary – was nowhere near as disruptive as China’s more permanent move to shut down 50% of the network. Nonetheless, it brings home certain grounded realities often overlooked by crypto utopianists, who portray Bitcoin as an unstoppable, independent system for human beings to autonomously store and exchange value.
