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Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

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191–200 of 486 posts

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a magical pseudo-currency that solves all problems and unexplainably makes everyone richer and richer That is not what cryptocurrency enthusiasts believe. I understand that you have to explain to yourself why others are dumber than you, even though they made crazy amounts of gains. But maybe in the end, we just see something that you refuse to see.

> But maybe in the end, we just see something that you refuse to see. I'm assuming you see an infinite supply of greater fools.

That is not what I see. That is what you tell yourself what I see.

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a magical pseudo-currency that solves all problems and unexplainably makes everyone richer and richer That is not what cryptocurrency enthusiasts believe. I understand that you have to explain to yourself why others are dumber than you, even though they made crazy amounts of gains. But maybe in the end, we just see something that you refuse to see.

A chance for a fast buck with much risk and little work? How revolutionary...

The best investment is to buy something that is undervalued. That also means you have to see value where others won't.

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Bitcoin is comparable to USD, then there's nothing justifying its use over USD, with its associated ludicrous waste of energy and environmental impact.

While I'm sure you're correct, does that make the comparison any less useful and informative?

It doesn't. The comparison is useful and informative - in pointing out ways in which Bitcoin doesn't, and can't ever, deliver on its promise. At best, if it were ever integrated into serious economy, it would just present an extra layer of indirection and complexity in a system working the same way otherwise.

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#194
post #70
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A decentralized money that government can't touch is the definition of a populous utopia in money terms. Bitcoin, by nature, is the most democratic form of money to ever exist on the planet. That more people don't get behind it and buy at least a little bit is mind boggling. Government fiat is and always will be a source of controlling the population and limiting their ability to build wealth.

I have at least some control (though small) over the politics that control my nation's fiat currency. I feel I have much less control over 51% of the mining community. Considering that, why should I feel its more democratic?

Miners don't control Bitcoin.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Full_node

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_is_not_ruled_by_miners

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#195
> top 10,000 individual Bitcoin investors control roughly one third of the cryptocurrency in circulation

> top 1,000 individual investors accounted for about three million of the 8.5 million Bitcoins controlled by the top 10,000 investors

I beleive same stats are available for stock markets. I wonder what numbers are there.

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it the exact opposite?

Yes. Inflation is a tax.

Inflation is a "tax" on owning money, an equalizing force if you will. Deflation is a "tax" imposed that benefits large holders of the currency on people who hold less or none of that currency.

There is ofcourse also the moral argument for inflation: society pays you because you it values what you sold or did. That valuable service is not going to be worth as much 50 years into the future, so inflation is the cost imposed on withholding that money from public circulation for your private benefit of being able to decide 50 years later what you do with that money for a thing you did back then.

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#198

“The 50 richest Americans now hold almost as much wealth as half of the U.S.” - Bloomberg - https://archive.vn/25Bz4 Is there any reason to think bitcoin is that much different from ownership ratios of other financial assets?

Yes, we know who those 50 are, and the wealth they own is in highly regulated markets. We know what they own, how much they own, when they buy/sell. We also dictate that they cannot trade on insider info and must generally play fair.

Say all you want about the efficacy of the above measures, they are absolutely not perfect. But it's completely different to bitcoin where none of the above applies, and often the opposite occurs.

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#199

“The 50 richest Americans now hold almost as much wealth as half of the U.S.” - Bloomberg - https://archive.vn/25Bz4 Is there any reason to think bitcoin is that much different from ownership ratios of other financial assets?

Exactly The system itself enables this phenomenon

Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners

#200
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Soooo. . . you're saying a tiny fraction of the population controls the vast majority of the resource? You mean just like every other major resource on the planet? :) I understand the need to try to dismiss this problem, specially from those who have a dog in the race, but the dream of having a magical pseudo-currency that solves all problems and unexplainably makes everyone richer and richer just falls out flat if…

> magical pseudo-currency that solves all problems and unexplainably makes everyone richer and richer That's not what's exciting about bitcoin. What's exciting is that it is the first digital, global money that isn't protected by the proof of violence of the state. The US dollar is the world reserve currency because the United States is the best in the world at deploying destructive power, and the British and French…

Except crypto isn't currency, it's an artificial resource with no inherent usefulness beyond exchange.

States won't give up their currencies because that would put all of them in the position of, say, Liberia, rather than the position of the US, EU or China who can literally print money to pay.

And even if all state currencies vanished over night, this would change nothing for individuals because the vast majority of wealth is claimed by a minority of individuals and the only thing guaranteeing their claim is the exact monopoly of violence of the state that also backs its currency.

You don't have a private yacht because the state guarantees the value of your money with violence against foreign nation state actors. You have a private yacht because the state will ruthlessly punish anyone other than itself trying to take it away from you.

The state may be holding a gun to your head to be able to take away what's yours at any time, but it also holds a gun to everyone else's head to prevent them from taking it first. This is why the extremely rich spend so much time, money and energy influencing politics. Not because they want to dismantle the state, but because they want to keep it from using the gun against them while still keeping it pointed at everyone else.

Without a state threatening violence to protect your claims on "private property" you'd literally have to raise your own private army to defend it. This is why leftists call anarcho-capitalism "feudalism with extra steps".

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