[Nursie]

>> 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.

[wyager]

>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.

[Nursie]

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...