Every user of Bitcoin is a citizen of the Bitcoin Country and has an opportunity to vote on which transactions get included in the blockchain. In order to cast a vote they must purchase electricity and computing power. If they decide to vote for themselves, they must purchase a lot of power or they effectively have no influence. Your odds of being elected ‘President for a Block’ are about as good as being elected a term as President of the Untied States. Instead, most people choose to join a political party known as a ‘mining pool’. Everyone mining in a pool is voting the party line.
As a country Bitcoin will burn almost $1 billion dollars in the coming year to reach consensus via voting on which blockchain is the official chain. This is a billion dollars that could have been invested into other businesses in the Bitcoin economy.
If you view bitcoin as the currency of the Bitcoin country, then the Bitcoin Government must impose a 12% wealth tax to fund its elections and provide for the common defense. The heads of various political parties take a cut of these taxes as well as the lobbyists (miners) which represent a small minority of bitcoin users and thus could be thought of as “special interests” compared to the vast majority of bitcoin users who have no influence. If you would like become a special interest, you must purchase your right to vote from other special interests whom sell voting rights (ASICs) for a profit.
The interesting thing about Bitcoin voting rights, is that they allow foreigners to vote who may not own a single Bitcoin but instead are mercenaries for hire ready to work for any country that will pay them the most.
Effectively, control of the Bitcoin is defined by who ever is willing to consume the most capital for the least reward and I know no one can compete with the United States Government in this metric.
No mining system based upon computation and electricity will be able to avoid Bitcoin’s fate. Even a mining algorithm that can only run on a CPU will result in mining being concentrated into specialized computers lacking everything but a CPU and RAM cooled in massive warehouses. Mining pools will be created and “political parties” will form.
Existing Proof-of-Work systems that operate on the basis of consumption of capital will result in centralization and in the hands of a few self-appointed mining Zars.