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Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

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Re: Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

#2
Lots of articles make this mistake -- they use the distribution of Bitcoin in wallets to determine the wealth distribution. This is extremely flawed not only because many miners hold their coins over multiple wallets (e.g. Satoshi) but moreso because exchange wallets are counted as single individuals.

Re: Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

#3
Anybody that has that kind of gain in the last few years from Bitcoin et al., would be nuts to not be cashing some of it out. More and more headlines by the day are sounding like a rehash of the dotcom bubble type insanity that occurred right before the crash. The lifestyle difference between $300m and $800m, or $1b and $6b, is not meaningful enough to risk giving 50% or 97% of it all back in a serious crypto crash.

In my opinion, the crypto boom will follow a nearly identical path to most bubbles that involve new, valuable technology. The bust will last for several years, most coins & ICOs will end up entirely worthless, a select few will remain very valuable, and the new technology services (that touch the real economy) built on top of blockchain in the following 10-20 years is where all the lasting wealth & impact will be made (trillions of dollars in new wealth globally, due to productivity improvements from new services/products, affecting most aspects of commerce & economy eventually). Most of the bubble wealth created in the present crypto mania, will never get cashed out (can never be cashed out), it'll die in the fire as with all bubbles. It's the classic over-done splurge that you see with all new technology (try every possible permutation, along with 37 copies of each), it simply means 99% of the coins will vaporize.

Re: Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

#5

Anybody that has that kind of gain in the last few years from Bitcoin et al., would be nuts to not be cashing some of it out. More and more headlines by the day are sounding like a rehash of the dotcom bubble type insanity that occurred right before the crash. The lifestyle difference between $300m and $800m, or $1b and $6b, is not meaningful enough to risk giving 50% or 97% of it all back in a serious crypto crash.…

Past bubbles didn't involve an economic paradigm shift

Re: Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

#6
> the approximately 1,000 people who hold an estimated 40 percent of all bitcoin, or an average of around $350 million each.

I've seen this statement over and over again for the last few months in various news outlets and blogs, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this statement.

I understand these 1000 people are what are popularly known as the "Bitcoin Whales" but how did most of them come in possession of a vast majority of bitcoins?

Traditional FIAT currency, like USD for example first comes into circulation when the US Government prints it, and then slowly makes it was into the hands of individuals via contract payments, salary payments etc etc.

With Bitcoin, who was/is that central entity that distributed the original coins? And in exchange for what? How much does this anonymous 'Satoshi' individual own? Did he only write the specs and the blockchain stuff for bitcoins, or did he also create said bitcoins and then grant himself a bulk of the coins like how Charles Lee did with Litecoins?

I couldn't find an explanation for this -- i.e. how did the BitCoin Whales come to posses 40% of the Bitcoins between themselves - anywhere, no matter how much I google it. Anyone?

Re: Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

#8

> the approximately 1,000 people who hold an estimated 40 percent of all bitcoin, or an average of around $350 million each. I've seen this statement over and over again for the last few months in various news outlets and blogs, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this statement. I understand these 1000 people are what are popularly known as the "Bitcoin Whales" but how did most of them come in possess…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

#9

> the approximately 1,000 people who hold an estimated 40 percent of all bitcoin, or an average of around $350 million each. I've seen this statement over and over again for the last few months in various news outlets and blogs, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this statement. I understand these 1000 people are what are popularly known as the "Bitcoin Whales" but how did most of them come in possess…

Some are miners. The others are early investors. All bitcoins were mined at some point, so they bought them from miners who cached out, or other investors who bought them from miners, etc. I don't think a significant number of them sold goods in exchange for their bitcoins.

Re: Bitcoin Billionaires May Have Found a Way to Cash Out

#10

> the approximately 1,000 people who hold an estimated 40 percent of all bitcoin, or an average of around $350 million each. I've seen this statement over and over again for the last few months in various news outlets and blogs, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this statement. I understand these 1000 people are what are popularly known as the "Bitcoin Whales" but how did most of them come in possess…

The first folks who were mining bitcoin back in the day when mining for coins was not resource intense at all.
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