What if someone wants to buy out Bitcoin

[cp1]

What if someone buys out all the food you own?  And every time you try to buy new food they buy that from you too?  Then you'll surely starve to death.

[coinsolidation]

What the OP described is called "cornering the market".  When someone tries to buy all the world's supply of a scarce asset, the more they buy the higher the price goes.  At some point, it gets too expensive for them to buy any more.  It's great for the people who owned it beforehand because they get to sell it to the corner at crazy high prices.  As the price keeps going up and up, some people keep holding out for yet higher prices and refuse to sell.

The Hunt brothers famously bankrupted themselves trying to corner the silver market in 1979:
"Brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt attempted to corner the world silver markets in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at one stage holding the rights to more than half of the world's deliverable silver.[1] During Hunt's accumulation of the precious metal silver prices rose from $11 an ounce in September 1979 to nearly $50 an ounce in January 1980.[2] Silver prices ultimately collapsed to below $11 an ounce two months later,[2] much of the fall on a single day now known as Silver Thursday, due to changes made to exchange rules regarding the purchase of commodities on margin.[3]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornering_the_market

[Yakamoto]

Wait, so did no-one REALLY not say that all 21 million coins haven't been minted? Yeesh.

A rare sighting of the mythical triple negative in the wild.

I really want to read what you're writing, but come on man.

Yes take a photo before he disappears

Heh, I was really tired when I wrote that.

Has no-one said that all 21 million coins haven't been minted?*

[InwardContour]

Some people will not sell the coins even if they were 100K USD presently.  Whoever wanted to buy all the coins would have to have government sized wallet

This is not true. The higher the price of bitcoin, the more likely people will be to sell their coins.
The OP has a few issues with the sceanario. The miners will continue to mine new coins via block subsidies, this will make it impossible to have all of the bitcoin for several hundred years. Another issue is that once someone acquires the majority of bitcon the value of bitcoin would drop dramatically. Bitcon derrives it value from the fact that people will/do use it as a payment method/currency. 

[Brewins]

if it ever gets slightly close to happen, people will just move to another coin and let the buyer with a big stash of coins with no value.

Biggest financial self-headshot ever

[DrG]

Some people will not sell the coins even if they were 100K USD presently.  Whoever wanted to buy all the coins would have to have government sized wallet

This is not true. The higher the price of bitcoin, the more likely people will be to sell their coins.
The OP has a few issues with the sceanario. The miners will continue to mine new coins via block subsidies, this will make it impossible to have all of the bitcoin for several hundred years. Another issue is that once someone acquires the majority of bitcon the value of bitcoin would drop dramatically. Bitcon derrives it value from the fact that people will/do use it as a payment method/currency. 

This is very true.  That's why a lot of people held off selling at $1200.  That's why they held off selling at $265.  That's why they held off selling at $33.  If you see the price rise dramatically in a short period of time some people will always try to hold out.

This is why you see run down buildings and lots in the middle of a modernized city - the land owner is holding out (usually for more financial gain).

[CoinsCoinsEverywhere]

While only the richest multi-billionaires could afford to buy a majority of the BTC out there, there are lots of hedge funds that have billions to invest.  But as many have said, buying all available BTC would make it useless.  Of course, that might be a sneaky way to try to destroy it.

[InwardContour]

Some people will not sell the coins even if they were 100K USD presently.  Whoever wanted to buy all the coins would have to have government sized wallet

This is not true. The higher the price of bitcoin, the more likely people will be to sell their coins.
The OP has a few issues with the sceanario. The miners will continue to mine new coins via block subsidies, this will make it impossible to have all of the bitcoin for several hundred years. Another issue is that once someone acquires the majority of bitcon the value of bitcoin would drop dramatically. Bitcon derrives it value from the fact that people will/do use it as a payment method/currency. 

This is very true.  That's why a lot of people held off selling at $1200.  That's why they held off selling at $265.  That's why they held off selling at $33.  If you see the price rise dramatically in a short period of time some people will always try to hold out.

This is why you see run down buildings and lots in the middle of a modernized city - the land owner is holding out (usually for more financial gain).

I have spoken to a lot of people who had sold the majority of their holdings at various price points that were well under even $250. I think that anyone that was paying attention would have sold their coins well before BTC was trading at $100 as they had these coins that were were virtually nothing and all of a sudden became worth a lot

[SunBin]

I have spoken to a lot of people who had sold the majority of their holdings at various price points that were well under even $250. I think that anyone that was paying attention would have sold their coins well before BTC was trading at $100 as they had these coins that were were virtually nothing and all of a sudden became worth a lot

No one in their wildest dream can predict bitcoin to go up more than 1000 folds in 3-4 years. The early holders who sold at $100 already do very well and not have to constantly worry about volatility and crashes.

[InwardContour]

I have spoken to a lot of people who had sold the majority of their holdings at various price points that were well under even $250. I think that anyone that was paying attention would have sold their coins well before BTC was trading at $100 as they had these coins that were were virtually nothing and all of a sudden became worth a lot

No one in their wildest dream can predict bitcoin to go up more than 1000 folds in 3-4 years. The early holders who sold at $100 already do very well and not have to constantly worry about volatility and crashes.

That is exactly my point. The higher the price goes, the more the early adapters are going to sell.

[sukamasoto]

21 million coins will cost trillions. No ones has trillions.

absolutely
no turnaround in the world bitcoin

[Noruka]

impossible.
not all coins are for sale

[Febo]

Like acquire all 21 million coins.  Then what?   

Then he will determinate the price, but he cant do that fro next 100 years, since all coins dont exist yet.

[PolarPoint]

If someone owns a majority of all the bitcoin, the function of it being a currency will be lost because no one can use it. Wouldn't the value of bitcoin actually falls?

[tee-rex]

impossible.
not all coins are for sale

If they are not for sale (that is don't circulate), they can be considered as lost. 

If someone owns a majority of all the bitcoin, the function of it being a currency will be lost because no one can use it. Wouldn't the value of bitcoin actually falls?

According to rpietila and his famous thread, as of April, 2014, 70 people hold together about 3.6M bitcoins, which constitutes more than one forth of all bitcoins minted (mined). Not a majority indeed, but still a great deal.

[cr1776]

I have spoken to a lot of people who had sold the majority of their holdings at various price points that were well under even $250. I think that anyone that was paying attention would have sold their coins well before BTC was trading at $100 as they had these coins that were were virtually nothing and all of a sudden became worth a lot

Lots of people who were paying attention did not sell (or spend) at $1, $33, $100, $260, or $1200.  Certainly some did, but many did not.

I think some people would sell a few right now to OP's buyer at $500k each, but I doubt they'd sell them all.

[cr1776]

If they are not for sale (that is don't circulate), they can be considered as lost.  

No.  Just because you own a car and don't want to sell it does not mean it is lost.  Ditto for bitcoin, gold, silver, diamonds, real estate, your mind, or anything else.

It just means they are not on the market.

[tee-rex]

If they are not for sale (that is don't circulate), they can be considered as lost. 

No.  Just because you own a car and don't want to sell it does not mean it is lost.  Ditto for bitcoin, gold, silver, diamonds, real estate or anything else.

If they never come into circulation again, then yes, they are lost. And even if they do enter into circulation somewhere in the distant future, today they can be safely considered as lost too.

[odolvlobo]

If they are not for sale (that is don't circulate), they can be considered as lost.  

No.  Just because you own a car and don't want to sell it does not mean it is lost.  Ditto for bitcoin, gold, silver, diamonds, real estate, your mind, or anything else.
It just means they are not on the market.

It really doesn't matter whether they are "lost" or "not on the market", or even who owns them. If 100% of the bitcoins are hoarded, then Bitcoin is dead. The value of hoarded bitcoins is determined by the value of the bitcoins in use. If no bitcoins are in use, then hoarded bitcoins have no value.

[tee-rex]

If they are not for sale (that is don't circulate), they can be considered as lost. 

No.  Just because you own a car and don't want to sell it does not mean it is lost.  Ditto for bitcoin, gold, silver, diamonds, real estate, your mind, or anything else.
It just means they are not on the market.

It really doesn't matter whether they are "lost" or "not on the market", or even who owns them. If 100% of the bitcoins are hoarded, then Bitcoin is dead. The value of hoarded bitcoins is determined by the value of the bitcoins in use. If no bitcoins are in use, then hoarded bitcoins have no value.

Stashed away money is bad for the economy (as if it didn't exist at all), and this has been known long ago.