CPUs are ubiquitous. They're everywhere. Anybody being able to participate in mining with general purpose computing hardware is hugely important for decentralization. If the mining algo can be paired ...
Not with the entire computing market: with the ones (very few) who choose to mine with their cpu.
I believe energy consumption is the deciding factor, and not mining hardware: mining with cpus also consumes energy and if one chooses to do so, might as well go for the most efficient per watt.
Since anyone who wants to mine (and spend energy doing it, which will cost more than hardware), can also buy asics, the field is leveled. capex will always manifest in more hardware in the hands of large players who can also get better deals on large buys, and keep buying recent, more powerfull cpus.
So, I think decentralization is not dependent on hardware but on how much money people choose to spend on mining, regardless of doing so with cpu or asics.
I believe energy consumption is the deciding factor, and not mining hardware: mining with cpus also consumes energy and if one chooses to do so, might as well go for the most efficient per watt.
Since anyone who wants to mine (and spend energy doing it, which will cost more than hardware), can also buy asics, the field is leveled. capex will always manifest in more hardware in the hands of large players who can also get better deals on large buys, and keep buying recent, more powerfull cpus.
So, I think decentralization is not dependent on hardware but on how much money people choose to spend on mining, regardless of doing so with cpu or asics.
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