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One of my frustrations with bitcoin is that there is a small cable of investors who own significant amounts of the outstanding bitcoins. They stand to make a f

One of my frustrations with bitcoin is that there is a small cable of investors who own significant amounts of the outstanding bitcoins. They stand to make a fortune if the currency were to take off and it seems that would leave us with an economy controlled by a small number of participants, defeating much of its potential benefits. A better proposal would be to distribute the available bitcoins equally to everyone on the planet, creating a fair and true starting point... wishful thinking, or could we hack the algorithm and shortcodes to do this?

dekz 16y ago
You could always spawn off your own chain. Like with most things, including the gold rush, people struck it early and are likely to profit if it takes off. But there isn't anything stopping you from grabbing a pick axe and mining yourself.
jerguismi 16y ago
1) Invent your own digital currency 2) ??? 3) Profit
mike_esspe 16y ago
72% of bitcoins are not generated yet. The largest known amount is 400000 BTC, that is around 2% of 21m coins. 2% of US money supply (M2) is around 180 billions. And the owner of that coins should wait decades, before bitcoin economy reach such size. Probably they will spend it long before that time.
netcan 16y ago
Isn't it still possible to get in on this? Early is relative, but if bitcoin ever makes it to any substantial point wouldn't that imply people buying bitcoin now will make huge profits? Maybe you can't be Larry & Sergey, but you can be be a pre-IPO investor. I think.
gregschlom 16y ago
A better proposal would be to distribute the available bitcoins equally to everyone on the planet, creating a fair and true starting point That's exactly the point of the algorithm, but instead of distributing bitcoins to everyone in the planet, it distributes it to everyone running the software.
gojomo 16y ago
Historically, 'equal initial distribution' hasn't seemed necessary for a money to be adopted. Equal initial distribution might not even be desirable for spurring adoption; among other things, it implies a 'big bang launch' rather than 'money MVP', and giving a new thing mostly to people who (quite reasonably) won't understand or value it. But I suppose it's possible. First, assign all 7 billion persons a unique ID and ensure they have a secure communications channel. Then, create a Bitcoin-analogous system with different initial parameters, whose difficulty of minting coins only escalates after you create the first 7 billion in private. Then, send those first 7 billion coins to everyone via the secure channel. Voila, the 'potential benefits' of equal distribution should arrive soon thereafter.
imaxwell 16y ago
[Early adopters] stand to make a fortune if the currency were to take off and it seems that would leave us with an economy controlled by a small number of participants, defeating much of its potential benefits. This is only true if early adopters keep holding onto their bitcoins as the value rises. In practice, only a very few will do this. I started mining about a month ago, which will qualify me as an early adopter if this really takes off. And I can tell you right now that if the exchange rate were to spike to something like $10 within the next year or so, I would probably cash out all or nearly all of my holdings, on the hypothesis that a correction was coming soon. Anyone who buys now and continues to hold at $10, at $50, at $100, ... and finally cashes out at $1000, probably deserves their fortune for exhibiting that level of foresight, patience, and self-control.

dekz 16y ago

You could always spawn off your own chain. Like with most things, including the gold rush, people struck it early and are likely to profit if it takes off. But there isn't anything stopping you from grabbing a pick axe and mining yourself.

jerguismi 16y ago

1) Invent your own digital currency 2) ??? 3) Profit

mike_esspe 16y ago

72% of bitcoins are not generated yet. The largest known amount is 400000 BTC, that is around 2% of 21m coins. 2% of US money supply (M2) is around 180 billions. And the owner of that coins should wait decades, before bitcoin economy reach such size. Probably they will spend it long before that time.

netcan 16y ago

Isn't it still possible to get in on this? Early is relative, but if bitcoin ever makes it to any substantial point wouldn't that imply people buying bitcoin now will make huge profits? Maybe you can't be Larry & Sergey, but you can be be a pre-IPO investor. I think.

gregschlom 16y ago

A better proposal would be to distribute the available bitcoins equally to everyone on the planet, creating a fair and true starting point That's exactly the point of the algorithm, but instead of distributing bitcoins to everyone in the planet, it distributes it to everyone running the software.

gojomo 16y ago

Historically, 'equal initial distribution' hasn't seemed necessary for a money to be adopted. Equal initial distribution might not even be desirable for spurring adoption; among other things, it implies a 'big bang launch' rather than 'money MVP', and giving a new thing mostly to people who (quite reasonably) won't understand or value it. But I suppose it's possible. First, assign all 7 billion persons a unique ID and ensure they have a secure communications channel. Then, create a Bitcoin-analogous system with different initial parameters, whose difficulty of minting coins only escalates after you create the first 7 billion in private. Then, send those first 7 billion coins to everyone via the secure channel. Voila, the 'potential benefits' of equal distribution should arrive soon thereafter.

imaxwell 16y ago

[Early adopters] stand to make a fortune if the currency were to take off and it seems that would leave us with an economy controlled by a small number of participants, defeating much of its potential benefits. This is only true if early adopters keep holding onto their bitcoins as the value rises. In practice, only a very few will do this. I started mining about a month ago, which will qualify me as an early adopter if this really takes off. And I can tell you right now that if the exchange rate were to spike to something like $10 within the next year or so, I would probably cash out all or nearly all of my holdings, on the hypothesis that a correction was coming soon. Anyone who buys now and continues to hold at $10, at $50, at $100, ... and finally cashes out at $1000, probably deserves their fortune for exhibiting that level of foresight, patience, and self-control.