>> The whole reason Bitcoin is interesting is that it's not under the control of a company, group, or government.
In reality it's under the control of the lead developers and the people that run the very few large mining pools. As shown by their collusion to fix blockchain forks etc etc.
>In reality it's under the control of the lead developers
Only because they've done nothing wrong (thus far). If there was any hint of foul play, they would be out.
The people that run the mining pools don't "control" bitcoin to any substantial degree. And, again, if they seriously abused their power, a trivial software fix would be to change the proof-of-work algorithm, instantly obsoleting the miners' equipment.
At the very least any action like that would create a huge schism and split the community and the currency.
I'm not trying to say that these actors have done anything bad, just the idea that it's not under control of a few central authorities isn't really grounded in observable fact...
While Bitcoin use is currently small the actual concept of a working "electronic cash" that negates the need for the credit card network with the use of cryptography and maths must be a serious threat to Visa/Mastercard since it provides yet another alternative to their duopoly when it comes to commerce. No wonder they do everything in their power to spread fud about bitcoin, seed doubt and make life difficult for cryptotechnology related startups. Some banks (especially in UK) are in a similar boat.
Somewhat how traditional car companies were schizophrenic when it came to electric cars and have done everything to kill them despite posing little threat being such a small market until Tesla came along at shown that electric cars are 1) better in many ways and 2) actually profitable
In reality it's under the control of the lead developers and the people that run the very few large mining pools. As shown by their collusion to fix blockchain forks etc etc.