Bitcoin Paradoxes — Contradictions Between Ideal and Reality

This topic neutrally examines the gaps between Bitcoin's stated ideals and its reality as of August 2026 — mining concentration, custody centralization, the tension between censorship resistance and regulatory compliance, seemingly dysfunctional governance, the institutionalization of an anti-establishment idea, and the two faces of energy use — grounded in primary sources. The same facts can be read either as ideals defeated by reality or as pressures a 17-year-old decentralized system inevitably absorbs while scaling, and the topic does not decide which reading is correct.