> But in an internet community, measured inequality can come from two sources: (i) inequality in total resources available to different participants, and (ii) i

> But in an internet community, measured inequality can come from two sources: (i) inequality in total resources available to different participants, and (ii) inequality in level of interest in participating in the community. Oh man, that is some seriously shaky foundations to rest your argument on. It also only holds for very early day cryptocurrencies; nowadays the main thing that limits your ability to hold a lot of crypto is not interest, but how much disposable income you've got. Maybe if you intended your cryptocurrency to remain niche this argument might be fine, but if your currency is supposed to replace fiat (as Bitcoin claims) then that argument is pure unadulterated bullshit. All it's saying is that inequality is fine because it's about who cared earlier, please ignore all the people that bought in with USD. I suspect that Vitalk knows he's playing a rhetorical trick here, he's too smart to not be aware of that. > The average person with $15 in fiat currency is poor and is missing out on the ability to have a good life. The average person with $15 in cryptocurrency is a dabbler who opened up a wallet once for fun. Inequality in level of interest is a healthy thing; every community has its dabblers and its full-time hardcore fans with no life. So if a cryptocurrency has a very high Gini coefficient, but it turns out that much of this inequality comes from inequality in level of interest, then the number points to a much less scary reality than the headlines imply. Yeah, except if your currency "wins" and replaces fiat, then that dabbler becomes a new feudal lord, and everyone who didn't have "interest" starves. Not really a comforting argument in that context, is it? Worse still if that "dabbler" "dabbled" because they had spare cash to spare; e.g. if they were already rich. > Cryptocurrencies, even those that turn out to be highly plutocratic, will not turn any part of the world into anything close to dystopia A. I do not trust this argument coming from someone who is in fact a plutocrat of a crypto currency.