Bitcoin Price Might Exceed $1 Million, More Millionaires in World Than Bitcoins

[josep]

While sources differ on the number of millionaires in the world, Credit Suisse estimates the number at about 35 million. This figure accounts for all “financial and nonfinancial wealth,” including assets, collectibles, and homes.

This is a remarkable number when compared to the total number of Bitcoins that will ever exist. While there are roughly 35 million millionaires in the world, there will only ever be a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins. That’s right--there will never be enough Bitcoins in existence for every millionaire in the world to own even a single one.

Why is Bitcoin valuable?
While you let that thought sink in, let’s consider what gives Bitcoin its value. Granted that there are numerous features we could cite, including a global network, an immutable Blockchain and a means to transfer wealth from one person to another without ever involving a middleman.
These are all fine features, to be sure. But what really makes Bitcoin valuable are two properties: scarcity and authenticity.

Digital scarcity
Bitcoin has value for the same reason gold has value: people want it and there isn’t enough to go around. New gold can’t merely be created; one has to find a gold mine and go through the difficult, capital-intensive and expensive process of mining and refining the gold. Because neither governments nor factories can create more of it, gold is scarce. This scarcity imparts value.

Many unusual items have been used as currencies or stores of value in earlier societies. One of the more famous is wampum, a necklace made from a certain kind of seashell that was rare in the Americas. A currency doesn’t necessarily have to be inherently useful in order to function, but it absolutely must be scarce.

This requirement for scarcity is the reason counterfeiting has such severe penalties. In fact, in earlier times, counterfeiting was punishable by death. Counterfeiters undermined confidence in a currency by making it less scarce. Doing so, at scale, could wreck an entire economy.

Authenticity
Gold has another feature that’s extremely important for any store of value or currency: authenticity. For millennia, gold has been used as both a currency and as a store of value. It has been prized throughout its history because of its scarcity. Gold has been used in money, in jewelry, in crowns and in palaces. Gold is universally associated with wealth.
Since Bitcoin lacks the thousands of years of history, culture and tradition that impart so much value and mystique to gold, it's easy to write the currency off as inauthentic.

But in a world that's rapidly moving from analog to digital, even a "new" technology like Bitcoin can be authentic. When it comes to digital money, Bitcoin certainly fits the bill. Of the thousands of different tokens that label themselves “digital currency,” Bitcoin is the very first. That grants it an important claim to the property of authenticity.

There are many great altcoins, but none of them were first. None of them can reasonably claim to be the best. None have a higher market capitalization. Bitcoin is the first, has the largest network effect, is the most universally recognized and is authentic.

Asset or currency?
As Bitcoin inches toward mainstream adoption, economists and finance experts debate whether it’s an asset or a currency. In terms of valuing Bitcoin, that argument couldn’t be more irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how people use Bitcoin; what matters is why people choose to own it.

Bitcoin’s future
The future of Bitcoin is almost certainly a bright one. Various analysts and traders have tried to guess the value of Bitcoin in the future, with some saying it might even reach $15,000 in the near term.

But forget about the near term. If Bitcoin is digital gold, then its long term value is what really matters. Bitcoin is rare. Bitcoin is scarce. The vast majority of people don’t own even a fraction of one.

What’s Bitcoin’s long-term potential? Bitcoin could easily become so valuable that even millionaires can’t afford an entire coin.

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[CryptoBry]

Asset or currency?
As Bitcoin inches toward mainstream adoption, economists and finance experts debate whether it’s an asset or a currency. In terms of valuing Bitcoin, that argument couldn’t be more irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how people use Bitcoin; what matters is why people choose to own it

As of now, it is more of an asset (just like gold) as people are holding to what they got and many holders are not using their Bitcoin to purchase anything whether online or offline. But there will come a time when the whole thing would be balanced (maybe when the price would plateau and not anymore fluctuates wildly).

But I don't see why the debate. Bitcoin is an asset and a currency...meaning both. I don't see why we should limit it to just one category. Anyway, in accounting a currency is taken also as an asset.

[Kakmakr]

This is a remarkable number when compared to the total number of Bitcoins that will ever exist. While there are roughly 35 million millionaires in the world, there will only ever be a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins. That’s right--there will never be enough Bitcoins in existence for every millionaire in the world to own even a single one.


What’s Bitcoin’s long-term potential? Bitcoin could easily become so valuable that even millionaires can’t afford an entire coin.

Have you counted the amount of Satoshi's that would be available? Do you know that even a Satoshi can be sub-divided if the need is there to do that? We are dealing with "code" and this code can be changed to adapt to the need. Sub dividing a Satoshi, will not make any difference to the total supply of bitcoins, it will just give us more units to work with.

100,000,000 Satoshi = 1 Bitcoin  ^smile^

[ivrynx]

this is a possibility in the future, we all know that even though bitcoin's value is volatile if you look at the trend, the graph is showing you a positive outcome, through the years, more and more millionaires will come out, because of bitcoin, not only that, I also believe, even billionaires will come out. I also think that it will really exceed $1 million, since there is not enough bitcoin for everyone, and bitcoin is now becoming a valuable asset, people will try to get there hand on bitcoin just like before. I think that like before there was a gold rush, and people wanted to be rich in an instant back then, however bitcoin is gold 2.0, and bitcoin, will not give you a high value at first, but in the long term, bitcoin can give you a fortune, like now, people who have a lot bitcoin, those have had invested on bitcoin, before it has reached the 1k mark, are now benefiting from bitcoin, since it grew more than 3000% from its start. I also think that bitcoin, will surpass all other cryptocurrencies that may come out, knowing that bitcoin will be more dominant in the coming years, we need to take care of our wallets and need to gain more bitcoins.

[RoommateAgreement]

This is a remarkable number when compared to the total number of Bitcoins that will ever exist. While there are roughly 35 million millionaires in the world, there will only ever be a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins. That’s right--there will never be enough Bitcoins in existence for every millionaire in the world to own even a single one.


What’s Bitcoin’s long-term potential? Bitcoin could easily become so valuable that even millionaires can’t afford an entire coin.

Have you counted the amount of Satoshi's that would be available? Do you know that even a Satoshi can be sub-divided if the need is there to do that? We are dealing with "code" and this code can be changed to adapt to the need. Sub dividing a Satoshi, will not make any difference to the total supply of bitcoins, it will just give us more units to work with.

100,000,000 Satoshi = 1 Bitcoin  ^smile^

dividing up bitcoin any further will NOT happen unless in a very extreme circumstance. it won't happen simply because it is a hard fork to change something very fundamental and it will affect bitcoin a lot. and also because there is no need for it and there won't be.

that extreme circumstance can be (if i recal correctly Satoshi said this) in case a very large amount of bitcoin is lost for sure. like 10 million coins sent to a burn address!

[DoublerHunter]

I don't think that the price of bitcoin will exceed or even touch a price that is close to 1M USD price because that is too much and i think the max price of bitcoin will be just around 50,000 USD because the difficulty of mining is one of the future's problem and also the network foundation is a great thing to maintain so if the difficulty will be maxed and mining will not become profitable anymore then bitcoin will just die.

[ObscurePen]

All the points that you said about scarcity and authenticity are correct. Bitcoin certainly has every one of those features. That is why it is so expensive at the moment. You also mentioned that analysts have estimated Bitcoin’s future price to be around 15000USD. That is a reasonable figure … well at least compared to your estimate of > 1000000USD. Such a value is almost certainly impossible. The main reasons for that are provided in your essay. Let me highlight them for you.

First up, you mentioned that “This requirement for scarcity is the reason counterfeiting has such severe penalties. In fact, in earlier times, counterfeiting was punishable by death. Counterfeiters undermined confidence in a currency by making it less scarce. Doing so, at scale, could wreck an entire economy.” This point about counterfeiting is not exactly the point that I am trying to get across, but it is enough to provide to you the basic picture. Bitcoin to various governments is like this counterfeit money. See when many people switch from government tendered fiat to Bitcoin, it is as if the scarcity of the currency is decreasing – in other words, it is becoming more common and less scarce. And as you mentioned, doing so at a scale can very much wreck an entire economy. Obviously, governments don’t want that. That is why they are so hesitant with Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption. This leads me to the second point.

You also stated this “As Bitcoin inches toward mainstream adoption”. Notice the use of the word “inches”. Google define inch as “move along slowly and carefully”. Once again notice the use of the word slowly in the google definition. Do you get my point? Bitcoin has not reached that point of mainstream adoption is most of the countries. A fortunate minority of the population knows about Bitcoin. And this move into mainstream adoption is not going to be fast. It is going to be extremely slow, because of many factors. Three crucial factors preventing mainstream adoption include the point that I mentioned above, price volatility and comparatively large transaction fees. All in all, people don’t see much benefits with Bitcoin. And why change your current system if the new one is worse off.

[Angroys]

21 million * 1 million = 21 trillion. enough day dream lol

[Panda Trump]

21 million * 1 million = 21 trillion. enough day dream lol

That's only like 30% of the total world money... eZ?

[talkbitcoin]

21 million * 1 million = 21 trillion. enough day dream lol

so you just multiplied two numbers and then concluded that it is impossible. well done my friend. well done.
i am not saying 1 million is possible though, but just saying it because some number (which is market cap) becomes big is not a reason for why not.

[bitbunnny]

Some rare users that are holding Bitcoins are millionaires but are they counted into number of worlds' millionaires? I don't think so. Having assets and wealth in cryptocurrencies still doesn't count.
How the Bitcoin price will rising the number of people who have some significant amount of money in Bitcoins will probably be higher but not everyone of them will be rich. This is just the dream.

[Koadharber]

Some rare users that are holding Bitcoins are millionaires but are they counted into number of worlds' millionaires? I don't think so. Having assets and wealth in cryptocurrencies still doesn't count.
How the Bitcoin price will rising the number of people who have some significant amount of money in Bitcoins will probably be higher but not everyone of them will be rich. This is just the dream.

It would just really remain as a dream and the people who would really got rich even more is those who holds lots of bitcoins from their stashes and as you said those people who have millions now on crypto world doesnt really count or belong on worlds millionaires.Going back on $1 million/btc it would really be just like a dream and its not possible to reach this heights.

[Mike Mayor]

Asset or currency?
As Bitcoin inches toward mainstream adoption, economists and finance experts debate whether it’s an asset or a currency. In terms of valuing Bitcoin, that argument couldn’t be more irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how people use Bitcoin; what matters is why people choose to own it

As of now, it is more of an asset (just like gold) as people are holding to what they got and many holders are not using their Bitcoin to purchase anything whether online or offline. But there will come a time when the whole thing would be balanced (maybe when the price would plateau and not anymore fluctuates wildly).

But I don't see why the debate. Bitcoin is an asset and a currency...meaning both. I don't see why we should limit it to just one category. Anyway, in accounting a currency is taken also as an asset.

I agree with you it is more of an asset then currency but at the same time it can still be used as a currency which is the best feature. Having a spendable asset is great. It makes things much easier. I don't see why people don't spend their Bitcoin ? Why not ? Why use Fiat when you can use Bitcoin ?

I also agree with you the debate is pointless and bitcoin is clearly both asset and currency. Why choose when you can have both ? That is the power that is bitcoin and why it's so strong.

[Netnox]

The number of millionaires in the world (i.e individuals with net worth over $1,000,000) is around 13 million, and that is lower than the number of Bitcoins in circulation right now. Also, if one BTC becomes worth $1 million, then more than 5% of the total global wealth will be in the form of BTC.

[13abyknight]

Gold could be considered an scarce asset in this world as well as Bitcoin. But the difference comes when there are contenders like Ethereum, Litecoin and hundreds of more altcoins which could always get around the price of Bitcoin. Surely in the real world there's silver to contend with gold but we all can agree that their prices will never be the same but in the digital world, the rate at which Ethereum is growing, there are chances that it could beat Bitcoin in prices and take the lead you never know. Not to mention there are many more altcoins which could follow suite and pip the previous coin with the newest technologies and this could go on and on.

[Welds1977]

21 million * 1 million = 21 trillion. enough day dream lol

so you just multiplied two numbers and then concluded that it is impossible. well done my friend. well done.
i am not saying 1 million is possible though, but just saying it because some number (which is market cap) becomes big is not a reason for why not.

nothing is impossible. that's the spirit @talkbitcoin. who would have thought in 2010 bitcoin would be 100 billion $, but here we are.

[Yakamoto]

I'm not sure why there would be some kind of connection between the value of Bitcoin and the number of millionaires in the world, or something along those lines. It makes sense that there would be more millionaires because, 1, there are 7 billion people on the earth, ~0.8B in the west and ~1.4(?)B in the east which have massive potential to be billionaires considering the amount of money they can earn, and 2, the sheer quantity of money makes it really easy to be a millionaire. People with good white-collar jobs can expect to be millionaires in their lifetime, most of the time anyways.

I know a few, it's not that hard, especially if you have two white-collar working adults in a household.

[rivoke]

I think it's impossible to happen since if many people who hold bitcoin become millionaire , it's too good to be true.
Let's us imagine if the most richest bitcoin address sold most of them, bitcoin value will significantly loss since they also play bitcoin market for eternity

[sylance]

I wonder when statements like this will change... meaning, when do we stop measuring wealth in US dollars and start measuring it in Bitcoin?  Do you think that'll ever happen?  Imagine if we shifted from the 'millionaire' hurdle to an entire Bitcoin model.  What if owning a full bitcoin was the measure to when you were determined to be wealthy.

[sammrheza]

is that too expensive if btc reach $1 million ? who will buy thah xD , maybe $100k is make sense for me