The natural state of an ASIC mining arms race is that any advantage forces centralization. For example, if you have the most cost-efficient miners, you can acqu

The natural state of an ASIC mining arms race is that any advantage forces centralization. For example, if you have the most cost-efficient miners, you can acquire more miners with your profits. Your competitors fall behind with each iteration. This forces a monoculture of mining machines as miners are forced to use the best-available miner. This leaves the entire system incredibly vulnerable to back-doors and state interference from that manufacturer. Similarly, locations with the cheapest power force centralization of location, which forces centralization of state regimes presiding over miners. Monero doesn't suffer from these centralizing forces as applying generalized computing power can be done with spare cycles and is still profitable at the margin. In other words, you might not buy a computer to mine Monero, but if you have one, it might make sense to use your spare cycles for mining. This gets you a widely distributed polyculture, which is the best kind of decentralization.