I'm using the same foggy crystal ball as everybody else, but my sense of it is that holding a reserve of bitcoin is more like holding a reserve of dollar bills.

I'm using the same foggy crystal ball as everybody else, but my sense of it is that holding a reserve of bitcoin is more like holding a reserve of dollar bills. You could have all the dollar bills and not still have all the wealth, because wealth is stored in a lot of kinds of assets. That'd make BC holders more like banks which convert between BC and other currencies on a per-transaction basis, which is how we use cash now. In that case, the value shifts would not be significant for most users of BC, nor would inequitable balances result in inequitable cultures. Having BC just means you don't have to pay a conversion/transaction fee. But again, I'm just guessing. EDIT: elaborating after some thought. I think bitcoin makes no sense if the UX is acquire,hold,spend; but works well if it's withdraw,transact,deposit. The deflation problem only matters if you see the general use-case as wealth storage.