What if someone bought up all the existing bitcoins?

[Portnoy]

Hi, I am a noob to all this bitcoin stuffs. It sounds like an interesting idea but before I invest too much into it I have
some questions and concerns. Perhaps highest on my list of concerns is the possibility that someone will buy up all,
or most, of all the bitcoins that exist.

Will it be just like the existing economic system where the rich get richer on the backs of the poor?
Will that not destroy the whole bitcoin project and make whatever bitcoins I happen to get myself worthless?

I have read a few things on this kinda stuff and some of it sounds pretty scary. I don't know how much of it
is FUD or how feasible any of it is at all at all.  

Please help me understand and ease my mind in regard to this issue.


Thank you

[1714890199]

1714890199

[1714890199]

1714890199

[1714890199]

1714890199

[1714890199]

1714890199

[1714890199]

1714890199

[1714890199]

1714890199

[evoorhees]

Hi, I am a noob to all this bitcoin stuffs. It sounds like an interesting idea but before I invest too much into it I have
some questions and concerns. Perhaps highest on my list of concerns is the possibility that someone will buy up all,
or most, of all the bitcoins that exist.

It is practically impossible to buy up all the Bitcoins that exist. As they are purchased, the price rises exponentially. Imagine how much this mysterious buyer would need to pay for the last Bitcoin still available? Who would sell it, and at what price? If there were only a few coins left, the price would be several millions of dollars, and people would simply use the fractions of a coin in the same way they today use a full coin. Furthermore, if someone attempted to do this, it would not harm anybody, and conversely the amount of resources that would be poured into Bitcoin would be immense! Every one of us who owns any coins at all would be rich, and would have the ability to start and fund new ventures.

I can think of nothing that would accelerate the strength, power, and development of Bitcoin more than "someone trying to buy all the coins."

Will it be just like the existing economic system where the rich get richer on the backs of the poor?
Will that not destroy the whole bitcoin project and make whatever bitcoins I happen to get myself worthless?

The rich typically "get richer" because they earn money by providing things people want. This is also how the poor "get richer." Those crooks who get richer via the coercive power of government intervention or through fraud will not be benefited by a monetary system that removes this coercive power. Wealth is necessarily MORE merit based in a Bitcoin free market than in a fiat centrally-planned and controlled market, because those avenues to achieve wealth through anything other than merit are reduced through Bitcoin. To be sure, a more merit-based system may lead to greater wealth inequality... but so what. Every man has the right to that which he earns.

The "distribution" of Bitcoins is meaningless - it is the manner by which one is able to acquire them which is important. One can acquire dollars through government force. One cannot acquire Bitcoins in that same manner. This is why Bitcoin is fundamentally "fair," no matter who's rich and who's poor, and why fiat currencies like the USD inevitably lead to wealth distribution that is fundamentally "unfair."

[Blinken]

Oooooh, I can hardly wait. Who is he? The price for my bitcoins will be $1 million each. This guy will make me rich. I will pay good money to know who he is.

[cypherdoc]

Oooooh, I can hardly wait. Who is he? The price for my bitcoins will be $1 million each. This guy will make me rich. I will pay good money to know who he is.

actually it would be $infinity.  woohoo!

[N12]

Oooooh, I can hardly wait. Who is he? The price for my bitcoins will be $1 million each. This guy will make me rich. I will pay good money to know who he is.

actually it would be $infinity.  woohoo!

If the Dollar is worthless, that would still be nothing though.

[disclaimer201]

Oooooh, I can hardly wait. Who is he? The price for my bitcoins will be $1 million each. This guy will make me rich. I will pay good money to know who he is.

actually it would be $infinity.  woohoo!

If the Dollar is worthless, that would still be nothing though.

+1

an infinite amount of zero.

[DeathAndTaxes]

What is someone bought all the gold? or oil? or electricity? or corn?

[FreeMoney]

He'd be totally screwed because as I sell my 104th to last coin I'll have such vast riches that he'll have to make high level physics breakthroughs and sell me trips to the past or distant galaxies in order to get more.

[DeathAndTaxes]

No it isn't.  The point is nobody could buy all the gold or all the corn or all the bitcoins.  They would all be equally stupid attempts.

You can't acquire "all" of any commodity not without forced gobal "sales" using military force and the threat of physical violence/death.  Even if I were to liquidate 99.99% of my bitcoins I would still hang on to a few so the buyer wouldn't get all of them.

[FreeMoney]

What is someone bought all the gold? or oil? or electricity? or corn?

That's different. We need gold, oil, electricity (highly correlated to oil, let's call it energy), corn, even gold to some extent (and we want it).

But Bitcoin has no corporal value, it has value because we believe in it and agree on its value (agree not as in fixing prices but set by the market).
One person would be pretty stupid to buy all the BTC, he/she would just be competing against themself, and everyone else would move on to create a new block-chain.

That really not likely since the next block would be worth about infinity * 50 / existing coins. It would be the most solid secure valuable block chain based currency even imaginable.

[FreeMoney]

No it isn't.  The point is nobody could buy all the gold or all the corn or all the bitcoins.

Not without forced "sales" using military force.  Even if I were to liquidate 99.99% of my bitcoins I would still hang on to a few so he wouldn't get all of them.

Why 99.99%? He's paying whatever you want. Sell half or 1% for more riches than you can every use.

[FreeMoney]

No it isn't.  The point is nobody could buy all the gold or all the corn or all the bitcoins.

Not without forced "sales" using military force.  Even if I were to liquidate 99.99% of my bitcoins I would still hang on to a few so he wouldn't get all of them.

Point taken.
But again, if someone could get their hands on all the BTC, then BTC became useless. But not with corn (and other goods you mentioned); most of the world (certainly the whole US) is corn fed, down to the corn-sirup.

What on earth would you do with all the corn? Spread it around to other people immediately?

[Gabi]

Someone want to buy all existing bitcoins?

Nice! I am selling some of mine at 20 billions $ each 

[evoorhees]

Someone want to buy all existing bitcoins?

Nice! I am selling some of mine at 20 billions $ each 

Gabi your brief comment actually conveyed the point I was trying to make better than I could have Nicely stated.

[truckingeek]

All this still fails to account for the coins that have been lost to careless wallet handling, sent into the void, or otherwise put someplace you can't get to them anymore: even if I wanted to, was forced at gunpoint even, I absolutely could not send you the first .00003355 of a coin I earned while mining.  Why?  A typo in the payout address.  They're still out there, somewhere, and until some hacker extraordinaire manages to crack that key they'll remain there.

This hearkens back to the argument from the '80s that "the Japanese are buying America!"  Someone's got to sell it to them!  Personally, I'm not selling mine for a nice long time.

[kjj]

What if someone bought up all the existing dollars?

[DeathAndTaxes]

What if someone bought up all the existing dollars?

I think the Chinese are trying but they forget how good we are at printing.  One thing no country can do better than the US is print dollars (oh and sell weapons of mass destruction).

[freequant]

What if someone bought up all the existing dollars?

I think the Chinese are trying but they forget how good we are at printing.  One thing no country can do better than the US is print dollars (oh and sell weapons of mass destruction).

USD, the first homeopatic currency.

[kjj]

What if someone bought up all the existing dollars?

I think the Chinese are trying but they forget how good we are at printing.  One thing no country can do better than the US is print dollars (oh and sell weapons of mass destruction).

USD, the first homeopatic currency.

Certainly not the first, and quite likely not the last either.

[MoneyIsDebt]

He wouldn't need to buy all of them. If his purchasing streak pushes prices up so high, or so fast, that nobody will sell them or use them, then for all practical purposes, bitcoin is dead. A currency with no current is not.