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Topic: Bitcoin as a trap (Read 672 times)

G2M
sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 250
Activity: 616
August 26, 2015, 04:54:55 AM
#5
Satoshi would never unload all his coins in one go, all would be for nothing.

He can short his own coin and also unload a million on the books at the same time, creating both a huge profit and enormous financial tidal wave.  You get both profit and a black swan event.  Hardly a "for nothing" waste.

As I stated, the odds of him just losing the keys are not really that high, and if he wasn't planning to do anything with them, he most likely would have sent them to a black hole address to increase faith in the project.  

I would say there's at least a 50% chance of those coins moving some day in the future.  This makes him a trusted 3rd party, kind of invalidating his own whitepaper.



Yeah...

Open wide...
for...
Satoshi..


...


           Huh
legendary
Activity: 1484
Merit: 1001
Personal Text Space Not For Sale
August 26, 2015, 04:40:18 AM
#4
Satoshi Nakamoto will definitely move his Bitcoin one day (if he or she or they is still alive) but not to spike the economy. He will do it for a better cause for the community of Bitcoin and the world.
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1000
August 26, 2015, 04:37:34 AM
#3
Satoshi would never unload all his coins in one go, all would be for nothing.

He can short his own coin and also unload a million on the books at the same time, creating both a huge profit and enormous financial tidal wave.  You get both profit and a black swan event.  Hardly a "for nothing" waste.

As I stated, the odds of him just losing the keys are not really that high, and if he wasn't planning to do anything with them, he most likely would have sent them to a black hole address to increase faith in the project.  

I would say there's at least a 50% chance of those coins moving some day in the future.  This makes him a trusted 3rd party, kind of invalidating his own whitepaper.
legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1007
August 26, 2015, 04:34:23 AM
#2
If all the gold that is currently stored in government vaults, would the gold price not collapse?

Satoshi would never unload all his coins in one go, all would be for nothing.

I think that the possibility of these coins moving some day is already factored in the price. The coins are out there. If they change hands, it will probably not be through the thin order books of the exchanges.
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1000
August 26, 2015, 04:22:51 AM
#1
Bitcoin uses terminology such as no trusted 3rd parties, yet there's a large problem with that.  Everyone constantly claims the giant Satoshi stash is lost or will forever remain unspent.  Since the stash wasn't touched in the run up to $1000 at all, we can derive the following options:

1)  Satoshi is already wealthy so any more is pointless to him

2)  Satoshi isn't wealthy but doesn't care about money (yea right)

3)  Satoshi values his anonymity over risking making a single cent of profit (unlikely)

4)  Satoshi believes the market knowing he has that many coins available to him would render the project dead, so he values the long term success of the project over monetary reward (plausible but unlikely since he didn't send them to a black hole address)

5)  Satoshi has lost the keys (nobody is infallible, but given the fact that he created Bitcoin, he's not an idiot and would likely have taken some precaution, so I would estimate this at 50% chance max)

6)  Satoshi has some strange future plan for the coins like building a moon base

7)  Satoshi is dead

8 )  Satoshi is really a pseudonym for a government project and the money is tied up in bureaucracy as a reserve such as holding gold in a vault

9)  Satoshi is a pseudonym for a government project and the stash is allocated for a specific, possibly nefarious purpose

Let's imagine a world where the dollar collapses, or somewhat collapses, and Bitcoin is able to hit $10,000 each (equivalent) or more.  Aren't a million coins enough to still smash all the order books down to 0?  You would most likely be dumping BTC on the books for physical gold in this case.  Would faith in the currency still exist after such an event happened?  Or would the government step in immediately after the event and say, we are issuing a new currency with all of our own metrics since this one can't be trusted and uses too much power?  This would be the Bitcoin as a trap scenario where it's utilized to ease everyone into digital currency then pull a bait and switch.

You can say events such as this are highly unlikely, but with the wealth he holds, he is a trusted 3rd party when he can decrease the value you hold to nothing.  Is it  even possible for Bitcoin to go mainstream unless he provably sends all of his coins to an unspendable address?

For something to be listed on regulated markets in the current financial paradigm, usually these giant whales have to be identified first to prevent cases like this.  This also leads to questions such as, do any cryptocurrencies even exist that wouldn't be affected by this problem?  Would something like Litecoin also have the same issue, or would it barely skim by?

If you examine all possible scenarios, Bitcoin as either a government reserve or trap ranks rather high compared to all other choices.
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