Being in the situation when the top 100 bitcoin addresses control 17.3 percent of all the issued currency can we talk about diversified ownership? I don't know, maybe we can, but I'd appreciate if someone could give me a more or less comprehensive answer.
It depends on how you look at these addresses. If you look at the addresses in the way that they are controlled by a few parties, then it's not diversified ownership. If you look at these addresses in the way that these funds all belong to millions of users, then it could be seen as diversified ownership. Most of these addresses are from miners, exchanges, online wallet services, gambling sites, etc. But then again, I am of believe that when you aren't the sole owner of your private keys, you don't have any coins at all. It's personal for everyone where each opinion on these addresses is more or less truthful. It's up to the SEC to finally make up their mind.
Thanks for taking your time to explain! I was always thinking that most of those addresses belong to the so called "whales", and now I'm thinking, if that's not the case, how can we be sure that the whales exist at all? I personally would be very glad to know that there are no whales who can manipulate the market at their will, but unfortunately I think there are some around still. There will be less and less of them in the future, I'm sure, because BTC will be distributed among millions of new adopters, but it might take several years for that to happen.
