Ishaq M on Nostr: (1) sure, but Bitcoin has been being mined on FPGAs and then ASICs since at least ...
(1) sure, but Bitcoin has been being mined on FPGAs and then ASICs since at least 2013. Unlike GPUs, these are not off the shelf components. Usually an implementation is developed/funded by a business/whale, and by the time it reaches common individuals, the businesses/whales are close to rolling out next generation for in-house needs.
(2) Sure, although I put traditional institutions (banks, hedge funds, etc) interest around 2018. But these institutions are not the only businesses in Bitcoin ecosystem, you'll find pictures from 2014 of mining forms with tens of thousands of ASICs in colder parts of Europe. Some of these could be rich individuals, i qm not convinced that most of them were.
But it is still possible that individuals hold most BTC. If majority hashing power came from mining pools (there was one that famously got close to 51% and started kicking people off to reduce its hash rate), then most if mined BTC went to its members, and mining pools were popular among individuals.
(2) Sure, although I put traditional institutions (banks, hedge funds, etc) interest around 2018. But these institutions are not the only businesses in Bitcoin ecosystem, you'll find pictures from 2014 of mining forms with tens of thousands of ASICs in colder parts of Europe. Some of these could be rich individuals, i qm not convinced that most of them were.
But it is still possible that individuals hold most BTC. If majority hashing power came from mining pools (there was one that famously got close to 51% and started kicking people off to reduce its hash rate), then most if mined BTC went to its members, and mining pools were popular among individuals.