Cobra, bitcoin.org’s and bitcointalk.org’s co-founder, opposes Bitmain. This company is the world's largest mining equipment manufacturer. In his opinion, the concentration of an increasingly larger network of Bitcoins in Bitmain’s hands threatens the decentralization of the cryptocurrency. Cobra considers that a possible solution would be a network transition, a hybrid algorithm of Proof-Of-Work consensus with some Proof-Of-Stake properties. To put it simply, make Bitcoin less dependent on miners.
In addition, Cobra accused Bitmain of political manipulation and use of hash control to support Bitcoin Cash, which he believes, threatens the Bitcoin network.
He also added that all the talk about new players in the mining industry is meaningless, since Bitmain is already ahead of its competitors. Cobra added that the future for Bitcoin is already heavily dependent on Bitmain and on "one person". He probably meant Jihan Wu, Bitmain’s co-founder, who was equally criticised as the company itself, saying that the Bitcoin’s market share would drop to 10% if Cobra’s proposal were ever implemented.
Cobra said that all Bitcoin problems come from miners who supported attempts to host the network hostilely, block new features for political reasons and support altcoins that threaten Bitcoin. In his own words:
"We need to get rid of them while we still can, they’re no longer a useful part of our community. Hard forks are scary, but let’s not be afraid to at least try to build consensus when we can all see the problem right in front of us."
Jihan Wu, in turn, called these statements and appeals, as political games. At the current situation, Bitmain is likely to end on top, because in 2017 the company's profits were about 4 billion dollars, and its share in the ASIC-miners market was between 70 to 80%.
What will emerge of this conflict between those two high profile figures on the cryptoworld. BitnewsToday’s team is following this case for further updates.