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? :)
Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
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Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#92Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#93Money is largely controlled by a small group of investors and central banks. [citation needed]
> Money is largely controlled by a small group of investors and central banks. [citation needed]
There are an estimated 40 trillion dollars in circulation alone. The US government debt is currently close to 30 trillion dollars.
The world's richest person has an estimated value of around 180 billion dollars, less than 1% of the US debt alone. I'm talking about projected value, not cash.
In contrast, it was already reported that a mere 100 individuals control around 13% of BTC's coins, and 1000 users control around 40%.
https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-whales-the-key-facts...
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#94Soooo. . . 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? :)
> 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 there are actually men behind the curtain manipulating it's value to screw everyone over in order to benefit themselves.
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#95Philosophical and moral discussions aside, is there any technical risk to this?
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I think this is not really surprising. Why would bitcoin be any different than e.g. wealth more generally.
My understanding is it expends unbelievable quantities of resources pretending otherwise.
Where are people pretending that bitcoin will fix wealth inequality?
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#97Importantly, distributed public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum don't give large holders the power to tax other participants, engage in seigniorage (1), or censor transactions and thereby become gatekeepers/tollgaters. (1) PoW hardware or staked coins, in PoW and PoS Sybil control mechanisms, respectively, do give their owners the power to issue new currency and collect transaction fees, but it is an open marke…
I'd consider the deflation to be a tax.
Isn’t it the exact opposite?
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#98Soooo. . . 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? :)
> 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…
I have this problem with crypto in general on here where I can’t trust anyone with pushing arguments centered around pathos or ethos because I can never know if they’re just trying to gin up support for crypto in general so that theirs isn’t the final level of the Ponzi scheme.
To everyone I’ve misjudged who genuinely enjoys the theory being crypto: I’m sorry.
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Users have the money. If there's a fork, users can value one side higher than the other and then developers and miners will follow the money.
> Users have the money. If there's a fork, users can value one side higher than the other and then developers and miners will follow the money. As the article shows, BTC's user side of the equation is actually controlled by a small group of investors. Thus, users like you and me have absolutely zero control or influence over the value of BTC, and are vulnerable to the manipulation done by this small group of investor…
Investors invest to increase wealth. If users stop thinking of any particular version of bitcoin as bitcoin - investors will start pulling out of it.
This is not about money invested but about social consensus over which version of software is the bitcoin.
Re: Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners
#100Money is largely controlled by a small group of investors and central banks. [citation needed]
The difference is that traditional money is up front about that fact and doesn't use decentralization as a selling point.
There seems to be a weird perception that decentralization means that there won't be inequality of power in the system.
That's not what it means.
Decentralization simply means that there is no central power that can make unilateral decisions about the system like a government can with its currency.
This explicit decentralization of power is what people are excited about, because it means any change to the system requires a supermajority of consent and there are no central points of attack that power hungry fascists can target and take over.
Centralization can be incredibly efficient, but also incredibly fragile.
Bitcoin is the anti fragile monetary system.