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Coinbase mafia shows how tight a circle holds sway over Bitcoin

bloomberg.com

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Re: Coinbase mafia shows how tight a circle holds sway over Bitcoin

#4

Post by superbcarrot »

mrfinn wrote: post #3

Blockchain technology is doomed, and somebody will be, eventually, the last link of the ponzi scheme.

I don't get why people's thinking swings to these wild extremes. Why does it have to be either a societal disruptor that changes everything or a doomed ponzi scheme? Can't it be something like "oh we tried to have cool internet money, turned out that it's not that great, some people are still into it I guess".

Re: Coinbase mafia shows how tight a circle holds sway over Bitcoin

#5

Post by ALittleLight »

"Mafia" seems a strange and prejudicial word to use here.

"Less than 2% of the anonymous ownership accounts that can be tracked on Bitcoin’s blockchain control 95% of the digital asset" - at first I thought this was really astonishing. Now, I'm not so sure. My first interpretation was that 2% of bitcoiners have 95% of the bitcoin - but now I wonder how many addresses a typical person has. e.g. If I create an address every time someone buys illegal drugs from me over the 5 years I sell them on the darknet, and later coalesce all my earnings into some address, does that mean that my X empty addresses are counted in the 98% of have-nots and my one coalesced address in the 2% of haves?

Depending on how many addresses people typically use, and given the multi-year history of bitcoin, it actually seems somewhere between not surprising and incomprehensible to me. Like, I guess that's a percentage it could be, but I don't know how to interpret it. I think a better news article would provide context on stats like this so the reader could understand rather than just leaving the reader to figure out the meaning for themselves.

Re: Coinbase mafia shows how tight a circle holds sway over Bitcoin

#6

Post by Triv888 »

loceng wrote: post #2

So will there be an investigation by the SEC for price manipulation relating to how inconveniently Coinbase was unaccessible multiple times for fairly long periods at different times the price of Bitcoin started to skyrocket?

You can only wish... The same thing happens to stock brokers and they don't get investigated, most of the time.

Re: Coinbase mafia shows how tight a circle holds sway over Bitcoin

#7

Post by _Microft »

ALittleLight wrote: post #5

"Mafia" seems a strange and prejudicial word to use here. "Less than 2% of the anonymous ownership accounts that can be tracked on Bitcoin’s blockchain control 95% of the digital asset" - at first I thought this was really astonishing. Now, I'm not so sure. My first interpretation was that 2% of bitcoiners have 95% of the bitcoin - but now I wonder how many addresses a typical person has. e.g. If I create an address…

They might be alluding to the "Paypal Mafia".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia

Re: Coinbase mafia shows how tight a circle holds sway over Bitcoin

#8

Post by Izkata »

ALittleLight wrote: post #5

"Mafia" seems a strange and prejudicial word to use here. "Less than 2% of the anonymous ownership accounts that can be tracked on Bitcoin’s blockchain control 95% of the digital asset" - at first I thought this was really astonishing. Now, I'm not so sure. My first interpretation was that 2% of bitcoiners have 95% of the bitcoin - but now I wonder how many addresses a typical person has. e.g. If I create an address…

> My first interpretation was that 2% of bitcoiners have 95% of the bitcoin

Consider how much was probably lost in the early days, from dead hard drives and such. For one specific example, bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto appears to have ~1 million bitcoin sitting untouched [0] - that alone seems to be ~5% of all existing bitcoin [1] owned by one person, with an estimated 11-16% more just "lost" [also 1].

[0] https://decrypt.co/34810/how-many-bitcoin-does-its-inventor-...

[1] https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/how-many-bitcoins-are-th...

Re: Coinbase mafia shows how tight a circle holds sway over Bitcoin

#9

Post by agumonkey »

Izkata wrote: post #8
ALittleLight wrote: post #5

"Mafia" seems a strange and prejudicial word to use here. "Less than 2% of the anonymous ownership accounts that can be tracked on Bitcoin’s blockchain control 95% of the digital asset" - at first I thought this was really astonishing. Now, I'm not so sure. My first interpretation was that 2% of bitcoiners have 95% of the bitcoin - but now I wonder how many addresses a typical person has. e.g. If I create an address…

> My first interpretation was that 2% of bitcoiners have 95% of the bitcoin Consider how much was probably lost in the early days, from dead hard drives and such. For one specific example, bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto appears to have ~1 million bitcoin sitting untouched [0] - that alone seems to be ~5% of all existing bitcoin [1] owned by one person, with an estimated 11-16% more just "lost" [also 1]. [0] https:/…

A recent example of lost recovery https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/lto0rt/found_an_ol...
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