Bitcoin is not the currency of the people and likely never will be

[davinchi]

Those number alone cannot truly define whether bitcoins should or should not be used by the people. If we look at those charts, we can only infer that those richest addresses are holding on to bitcoins as an investment or a business whilst people can use little amounts of bitcoins for currency.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

what is the source of this chart?

anyways the information can not be reliable when it comes to bitcoin. there is an anonymity with bitcoin and also the spread between bitcoin addresses that you can never make such conclusions and charts. nobody is keeping coins in one wallet so you can't find the real whales.

also, these top addresses are mostly mining pools, exchangers, services, .... that hold a lot of bitcoin because of the nature of their business.

That's the first thing I thought, too, but assuming it's true it's not bad for bitcoin.  There are 100 million satoshi in each whe bitcoin!  We need the price to rise 1000 fold and then it won't matter in the least if a single address has 10 million coins.

[yayayo]

It is no different than what is happening in the fiat system. Most rich people can buy more Bitcoin and some early adopters might even be normal average middle class citizens. They will eventually sell and Bitcoins will be distributed. Bitcoin cannot change a situation that were created before it was even developed. Wealth distributing was already not equal before Bitcoin came on the scene.

[...]

That's not wrong, but it doesn't explain the reason of unequal wealth distribution. I think the real factor that is at work both in the fiat system and in the Bitcoin sphere is a psychological one: The ability to endure delay of gratification. People that are rich vs. poor tend to differ in that respect.

Most people have problems (also with themselves not admitting to) with excessive spending behavior. You can clearly see that at the prevalence of credit card and other individual debt in the US. Most people simply can't resist the temptation to spend their money to buy things. This is the relatively "poor" majority - they spend more than their income would allow. On the other hand you have people that are "money hoarders", they are aware of their financial possibilities and are sometimes even ascetic when it comes to spending. This group of people has the highest probability to eventually become rich.

ya.ya.yo!

[Snorek]

So you wanted bitcoin to be a communist currency? 1 Bitcoin for everyone? That is not gonna happen in real world.
As much I don't like that wealth distribution and I feel that is is wrong and cruel I know that there is little we can do about it.
Because you won't raid houses of rich people just because they are successful and better at earning money.

[sergii59]

 bitcoin must be as well as all another currencies or as before gold and other metals...

[Snorek]

So you wanted bitcoin to be a communist currency? 1 Bitcoin for everyone? That is not gonna happen in real world.
As much I don't like that wealth distribution and I feel that is is wrong and cruel I know that there is little we can do about it.
Because you won't raid houses of rich people just because they are successful and better at earning money.

What does this have to do with OP's point, that being "Bitcoin is not the currency of the people and likely never will be"?

Don't you see it? In our current economy systems based on FIAT, in fact every of them - either closed and regulated or allegedly 'free'.
There is wealth disproportion - and you can say that there is NO currency on earth which can be called "people's currency".
Were by 'people's currency" you mean currency with equal wealth distribution. Bitcoin is not exception here despite being decentralized digital currency.

[odolvlobo]

The number of bitcoins owned by the richest holders is increasing as bitcoin grows older. Adoption could very well be a sham, because as a matter of fact the biggest holders keep accumulating more bitcoins, no matter how much bitcoin gets trader every day, this trend doesn't seem to be declining.

That statement is false. 4 years ago, the top 500 addresses held nearly 40% of the bitcoins. Today, the top 500 addresses hold less than 30% of the bitcoins. The trend is declining.

It's not false, this statement is in accordance with that the chart in the OP shows. The chart is from here, a page which in its turn is sourced by publicly available data on the blockchain. The number of bitcoins held by the richest addresses indeed keeps increasing, but the percentage doesn't necessarily follow an upward trend.

Although the statement "the biggest holders keep accumulating more bitcoins" is true, the OP is implying that the distribution is growing more unequal, and that is false.

Here is the graph that is more relevant (from http://www.bitcoinrichlist.com/charts/percent-bitcoins-owned-by-richest):



As you can see, the trend is down. Addresses are becoming more equal.

Anyway, none of this matters because addresses are not the same as people, and the number of bitcoins owned by a person is not correlated with their wealth or income.

[Hellacopter]

I think Bitcoin nowadays is growing up daily and even if it's now the currency of the people , in the future it will likely be if it's continue this success online and if the price get higher and become a little stable

[knowhow]

The number of bitcoins owned by the richest holders is increasing as bitcoin grows older. Adoption could very well be a sham, because as a matter of fact the biggest holders keep accumulating more bitcoins, no matter how much bitcoin gets trader every day, this trend doesn't seem to be declining.

That statement is false. 4 years ago, the top 500 addresses held nearly 40% of the bitcoins. Today, the top 500 addresses hold less than 30% of the bitcoins. The trend is declining.

It's not false, this statement is in accordance with that the chart in the OP shows. The chart is from here, a page which in its turn is sourced by publicly available data on the blockchain. The number of bitcoins held by the richest addresses indeed keeps increasing, but the percentage doesn't necessarily follow an upward trend.

Although the statement "the biggest holders keep accumulating more bitcoins" is true, the OP is implying that the distribution is growing more unequal, and that is false.

Here is the graph that is more relevant (from http://www.bitcoinrichlist.com/charts/percent-bitcoins-owned-by-richest):



As you can see, the trend is down. Addresses are becoming more equal.

Anyway, none of this matters because addresses are not the same as people, and the number of bitcoins owned by a person is not correlated with their wealth or income.

Im pretty sure some miners sold some of their porfolio to recover their investment and now just accumulating the coins,making the market work out with the small holders out of the 500 top accounts of bitcoins holders,isnt nothing new that the top 100 are accumulating more and more soo they have some project to those bitcoins and some target till they sell if they are going to sell,maybe they interested in hold more and more bitcoins.

[zimmah]

The number of bitcoins owned by the richest holders is increasing as bitcoin grows older. Adoption could very well be a sham, because as a matter of fact the biggest holders keep accumulating more bitcoins, no matter how much bitcoin gets trader every day, this trend doesn't seem to be declining.


4.5m bitcoins are held by the top 500 richest addresses
15.5m bitcoins have been mined so far

in absolute terms the rich addresses are getting more bitcoin, but in relative terms they dont grow that hard.

the % of bitcoin they hold compared to the % of bitcoin they held in the past is declining, and it will keep declining because unless they were already rich before bitcoin they can't afford to keep buying more bitcoin than everyone else combined.

also note that many of the large wallets might belong to cold wallets of large exchanges and other bitcoin services (like casinos)

[TheDreadPirateDickstein]

The number of bitcoins owned by the richest holders is increasing as bitcoin grows older. Adoption could very well be a sham, because as a matter of fact the biggest holders keep accumulating more bitcoins, no matter how much bitcoin gets trader every day, this trend doesn't seem to be declining.


4.5m bitcoins are held by the top 500 richest addresses
15.5m bitcoins have been mined so far

Sad but true

[Deadman10]

Where did u get this information bro?

[samlaode]

I have a feeling this is why the goverment is cool with BTC... they spent a couple million dollars to aquire a wallet with the potential of trillions of dollars. If they threw out the USD and went to BTC completely, they'd still be on top of the world! Kinda smart move... and they took down an illegal drug ring that gave cryptocurrency a bad name... not a bad job.

[alani123]

So you wanted bitcoin to be a communist currency? 1 Bitcoin for everyone? That is not gonna happen in real world.
As much I don't like that wealth distribution and I feel that is is wrong and cruel I know that there is little we can do about it.
Because you won't raid houses of rich people just because they are successful and better at earning money.

What does this have to do with OP's point, that being "Bitcoin is not the currency of the people and likely never will be"?

Don't you see it? In our current economy systems based on FIAT, in fact every of them - either closed and regulated or allegedly 'free'.
There is wealth disproportion - and you can say that there is NO currency on earth which can be called "people's currency".
Were by 'people's currency" you mean currency with equal wealth distribution. Bitcoin is not exception here despite being decentralized digital currency.

1. I'm not OP
2. OP, if I read him right, is saying that bitcoin wealth is more, not less, concentrated than fiat wealth.
Now that we're on the same page, what is it that you disagree with?

Bitcoin IS more concentrated by fiat, read 1% of the Bitcoin Community Controls 99% of Bitcoin Wealth. What's written in the title is true, if you go to this page you can see for your own. Addresses with the top balance that are 0.77% of the total addresses holding a balance hold 99.69% of all bitcoin that has been mined up to block #410000. But that includes addresses containing 0.1 - 1 BTC which isn't a lot of wealth. Also companies with obligations to customers don't own the bitcoins they've accumulated.

[AGD]

I am people and I use Bitcoin to buy stuff and I earn Bitcoin, that I can either hodl or spend. To me it's indeed a people's currency. I don't understand your point, I guess...


It's a semantic misunderstanding. The dirt-poor use fiat, which is issued by banks. By your definition, that makes fiat the currency of the people.


Why are you here? Do you have Bitcoins? Do you have a problem with spending it? You can make it peoples money by simply using it, no matter what other people say. There are loads of people out there using Bitcoin. Join them!


Why are YOU here? Do you have a problem with spending fiat? You can make it peoples money by simply using it, no matter what other people say. There are loads of people out there using fiat. Join them!

Your posting makes no sense, but ok:

I am here at this Bitcoin forum because I am interested and I support Bitcoin as an alternative currency and, yes, I also use fiat.

Now: Why are YOU here? (This question should be addressed to the OP also)

[Hirose UK]

Having less supply will simply make our bitcoins worth more .

agree with you. if botcoin worths more, people will try to get it. and I'm sure the rich holders will sell their bitcoins, so bitcoin will be people's currency. IMO

bitcoin is already currency of people anyway, many people around the world own bitcoins.

[tabas]

Yes, it is not the currency of people and we can say that people will not recognize it, on how bitcoin works, on how to earn with bitcoin.
And because it is a digital currency not all people are computer literate and still there are many people that doesn't know how to operate a computer. If they can't operate a computer how much more to understand bitcoin. 

[NewBTCGuy]

The graph would be more informative if it displayed the data as percentage of Bitcoins outstanding instead of just the total number owned and if it excluded the addresses of services which might be holding bitcoin in custody for others.

At any rate others have noticed that the topic itself is demonstrative of a significant Bitcoin flaw:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/4ih4m0/another_missing_the_forest_for_the_trees_topic_on/

[joinfamily]

I think bitcoins is the peoples currency and it is one of the best.

[ausbit]

The number of bitcoins owned by the richest holders is increasing as bitcoin grows older. Adoption could very well be a sham, because as a matter of fact the biggest holders keep accumulating more bitcoins, no matter how much bitcoin gets trader every day, this trend doesn't seem to be declining.

-snip-

4.5m bitcoins are held by the top 500 richest addresses
15.5m bitcoins have been mined so far

These 500 richest people are loving bitcoin, or it is also the possibility that these owners of that addresses are the biggest traders or exchanges of bitcoin and so their addresses gets the more bitcoins then any other.