Can anyone explain to me how #bitcoin #btc is decentralized if nostr:npub15dqlghlewk84wz3pkqqvzl2w2w36f97g89ljds8x6c094nlu02vqjllm5m owns 1% of all bitcoin and 14,000 wallets own 60% of ALL bitcoin. What if we replaced the word 'whale' with 'oligarch'? Not sure how having so few people owning so much of btc makes it less susceptible to manipulation. This is s concern. Maybe I'm wrong?
Discussion
Furthermore decentralization is about the protocol, not the holders. More coins doesn't grant you control over the network
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate how the protocol is decentralized but I worry about so much in the hands of so few.
That's the beauty of a hard cap. The cantilon effect is rendered useless, and therefore distribution of wealth will flow to the people who produce value.
I think you need to do some research.
The word decentralization does not seem to mean what you think. Has nothing to do with who holds the coins rather who makes the decisions around the protocol. With the Bitcoin protocol, not one person or group can control the protocol and make changes arbitrarily
I understand how the bitcoin protocol is decentralized in and of itself but what would happen if all whales dumped btc tomorrow? I'm guessing the price plummets.
Just like anything else, that's not manipulated by governments no?
Absolutely! But if #btc can be manipulated via majority holdership, what's the difference?
A lot.
Plebs for one.
If the whales sell, there are sooooo many hungry plebs ready to eat it all up. As they say in normie land, we are psychopaths 🤣
Also unlike fiat it only hurts the whale to sell. All value will naturally flow to the hardest asset.
I'm not the best to answer this, but if you haven't yet, check out The Bitcoin standard and The fiat standard by Saifedean Ammous. It can answer all your questions on a much higher level than me.
Thats really only matters if you care about dollar price. Its a trope but 1 btc = 1 btc. If we really are out here to replace the dollar then thinking of Bitcoin in dollar value is pointless.
Not to say that bitcoin fixes the money hording issue of people like saylor but eventually (and this is making a lot of assumptions here) if the dollar fails and we use bitcoin more like money rather than just a savings asset people like saylor will be forced to use that bitcoin. He might still have a small hord but id assume the supply would much more "even" for a lack of a better way to say it.
Might be off my ass here but this is kinda how i think about it.
distribution of the supply*
Derp
You 🫵 are wrong ❌
🧐 Maybe you should learn first more about the FIAT-System.
The only thing whales can do is affect the price by selling or buying massive amounts of bitcoin. Btc isn't proof of stake like ethereum,so coin concentration does absolutely nothing to the decentralized nature of the protocol. This is the biggest flaw of ETH now... ETH also has a concentration issue but unlike bitcoin, the more ETH you have the more you can affect the network (not just the price ). Someone could have 60% of all bitcoin and he/she won't beable to change how blocks are validated. You can run a bitcoin node for free - the real power lies in the miners and nodes, not the holders.
He still has no more power than you or me to change the protocol. That’s decentralization.
Absolutely! Maybe I'm more concerned with manipulation vs decentralization. Maybe I'll just keep posting cute fam pics 😏
It’s a good question to ask. No shame in it at all. Price manipulation is certainly a risk. If he decided to sell all of microstrategy’s coins tomorrow the price would drop significantly.
But manipulate what exactly? What manipulation are you afraid of sats =sats again his proportion of the network has 0 effect on yours.
Price in any other currency you denominate bitcoin in can be manipulated by any whale. Yes, 1 btc = 1 btc, but for many the value of bitcoin against their native currency is still important.
In the end it only matters if you hold your keys. You're too worried about the exchange value of worthless paper currency. That is entirely too near cited. In the future there will be no person that holds #bitcoin that will take your slave currency for it.
As a holder of 'slave currency' and 'slave equities'? That I hope to partially find my n retirement, I hope you're not totally correct. I, of course, am a #btc stacker but also participate in modern society as I suspect you do. People are pretty quick to say fiat and/or equities are crap, but if they go to zero, we'll all be effed
How so? Are you not a man capable of action? You're putting entirely too much emphasis on relying on others to do that which you can do for yourself, brother. In the end there is only you and this earth. To say because some man made thing that was valued at 30k goes to 0 overnight didn't mean you are ruined, you still have your life, you still have your sweat of your brow, you still have the ability to carry on without the imaginary value you think you have.
I guess you are right. My life force has little to do with any asset. This is very fundamental but easily forgotten by me. Thanks
Yes its easy to get lost in the fog that is the man made creation of the greater society. I myself forget these ideals too. We are bot perfect beings be together we can help each other in whichever way we best know how.
I have an idea for a podcast that i should be launching soon to bring these first principles or axioms of life back to the forefront of the consciousness. So we can help ourselves remember that in which modernity has made us forget.