Hi James,

Thank you for taking the time to read my piece and to share your thoughts on this subject. Based on my research and my personal interaction with cryptocurrency miners, for the most part, collusion is difficult, if not impossible. You will of course note that every time any specific mining pool has come close to the 51% level, it has sparked outcry from the community at large, which has generally forced miners to pull back from those levels. And while I acknowledge it is entirely possible for cryptocurrency miners to collude when it comes to futures contracts for Bitcoin or the like, it is precisely for this reason that Bitcoin futures contracts would undermine the ethos of transparency and decentralization which were its founding tenets. If nothing else, it will continue to fuel speculation that Bitcoin prices are already manipulated, which can only serve to undermine any possible consideration for adoption and adaptation for use.

The Bitcoin ecosystem today may not have panned out the way Satoshi Nakamoto had envisioned it — increasingly centralized mining pools, dominance of industrial-strength miners and the rise of speculation. Bitcoin futures are just another example of the unforeseen ways in which Nakamoto’s creation may have evolved. Granted, the evolution of Bitcoin falls under a category of unknowable unknowns.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and as always, I appreciate the time and thought taken.

Patrick