Ahhh - sorry, misunderstood you. Thought you ment there was some kind of protection.

Their interest is not to crash anything. They just want to trade up the value and then sell everything. After that BTC will fall to the natural value it should have been traded to all the time and all the foolish people who thought it was a fair game can lick their wounds

Seems not. Not really surprising

It's is not about who has more or less or if you have earned a lot of money speculating. It is about if one single person or a very few can control the price on the "free" marked. If they can and nobody knows, it puts them in a position where they can manipulate the price for their own benefit, and that is not a free marked.

The way it's done is by trading with yourself or a partner to unrealistic high prices. When the price is satisfying, you sell them to other people who believes the price is natural. When you then leave the marked, the price will fall again. People go to prison  for such things if it is shares. It is stealing. And it is one of the reasons why share holders owning significant parts of the shares in a company, in most contries always will be known.

Question is of cause if we should see BitCoins as just a way of gambling or as a currency. If it is just for gambling, oh well..... If it is a currency people wants to do real business with, it's an other matter.

In december 2011 I saw 3 transactions on http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/, over 3 days, just around 500K BTC each.

This means:
- that at least one single person sits on 6-7% of the total amount of Bitcoins out there - probably even more.
- In relation to the marked depth last 24 hours, it is total control

 
Any comments on this?


As a sidenote:
You really have to trust the "system" to transfer that many "money" in one single transaction.

Hi all

I was introduced to Bitcoin 4-5 months ago. Have read a lot, followed the marked at mtgox and followed transactions via the Bitcoin monitor and have read a bit about mining.