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.
Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
191–200 of 486 posts
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#192Earlier 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...
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#193Earlier 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?
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#194Earlier 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?
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#195> 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
#196Wait until you hear about the proportions in other industries that have a far more direct impact on the real world than Internet funny money does.
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t it the exact opposite?
Yes. Inflation is a tax.
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?
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?
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#200Earlier 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…
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".