[alexkcd]

PoW will centralize towards cheap energy access. PoS will centralize to majority stake holders. I would bet that such energy access or stake follows a power law distribution. So long as that is true, neither system will ever provide decentralization.

[coralreef]

Okay, but what happens to energy prices when enough miners flock to low-cost centers? Prices go up. In a long enough time horizon, opportunity to take advantage of energy prices basically gets competed away. I haven't read much on energy production, but as far as I know there are many places on the planet that cheaply produce renewable energy.

[alexkcd]

Energy production is heavily regulated and centralized to a few entities. Very much like financial institutions.

It's highly unlikely that the free market somehow sorts this out in the future, considering that it's the free market that gave rise to these power law distributions to begin with.

[coralreef]

I get your point, but I'm not really sure what the purpose behind your argument is.

There will always be some limiting factor or theoretical vulnerability. If it's not ISPs/Internet infrastructure, then its the exchanges and fiat on ramps. But yet, its been pretty hard to kill illegal filesharing, VPNs, etc.

It's even harder to stop those things when the population doesn't believe in legislating against it, at least in a democracy.

[alexkcd]

My point is that neither PoW nor PoS are decentralized. Which was in response to the original comment.

I’ll let other people prognosticate as to what, if anything, that means for their future.