I wonder if it would not be possible for a small group of reasonably well capitalized people with a common end-goal to cooperate in order to achieve two things:
- maximize their accumulation of BTC.
If they saw a bright future in bitcoins then sure, they might accumulate as many as possible. But they also know they could be the bag holders when everyone else loses interest. Not too many investors are willing to play the part of the benevolent investor, who doesn't mind taking a large loss for the public good.
I'm betting that it's a big world with a lot of problems. Even if Bitcoin is recognized as just as a very short term transit medium, I theorize that it could have a significant value. So, my motives are profit driven to be sure. I theorize about an outside possibility of use which is more benevolent in nature, but it's to long a shot to worry about.
But anyway, someone in your situation (not interested in amassing a sizable position for whatever reason) is obviously not a candidate for participation in a manipulation scheme such as I'm thinking of.
- give short sellers a painful and swollen rectal area.
I don't think that it would be illegal in the Bitcoin-land at these wild early days, but would be happy to entertain alternate theories on this. Unethical? Probably. Cruel? ya. Effective? Dunno. Good for Bitcoin generally? maybe, maybe not. Risky? Probably. Fun? I would suspect so
Illegal? What sort of laws, and under which jurisdiction, would any of the above be illegal? Bitcoin isn't recognised as a serious investment tool or commodity. It's like trading basketball or Magic The Gathering cards. If someone corners the market and doesn't play fair you can hardly go complaining to the police that your Michael Jordan trading cards fell in value.
These are my assumptions as well, but I am not a lawyer.
Unethical? When do ethics come into trading when it comes to accumulating as much money as possible?
Everyone knows short selling is essentially gambling. Regardless of all the fancy graphs and protestations on BitcoinTalk about how the market should go this way or must go that way, people really have little clue about short to medium term variance.
I don't think I would have any significant ethical problems damaging the 'free market' in this way at this time, or giving people who wish to short sell one more thing to worry about.
