Bitcoin has already seen some unfortunate consequences of running on an open network.<p>Chinese mining syndicates hold a significant share of control over the Bitcoin network, and are therefore able to control the destiny of Bitcoin. They decided against the Bitcoin XT fork, for example and stand in the way of its adoption.<p>All democratic, naturally. Possibly a good thing for Bitcoin stability.<p>But can you imagine American banks ceding control of their settlement infrastructure to a network &#x2F; protocol whose rules could be dictated by China?