the problem with wealth distribution is not bitcoin related. its user related.
bill gates is not a rich man because he mined gold in the 1980's
oprah winfrey . ditto ditto ditto
mining is just one way to become wealthy.
and if you compare it to gold mining, the actual people doing the mining.. the african slaves etc are not billionaires, its the traders that play the markets.
infact inventing a product / service can make you more wealthy then someone digging for gold/satoshi dust each day.
the secret is to not sit on your hands saying "i can't be an elite because....." but instead "lets make a plan to do something"
bitcoin has opened up new freedoms for self employed people to accept something of value for their labour without it having to be fiat.
its opened up opportunities for these self employed people to then send their earnings to other countries without the need of banks and bureaucracy.
with my bitcoins i can get on a plane and meet someone at the vacation destination and convert my coin to their native currency without the need of travellers cheques, special internationally accepted credit cards, or needing the services of banks, 'bureau de change', travel-ex, etc.
to set up a website, i don't need to pay X per month with a card processing company.
the whole entrepreneurial hurdles and paperwork has become less and less by just using bitcoin. Look at all the licence requirements exchanges need for handling FIAT. and ask yourself, wouldn't it be great if there was no direct need for fiat, think of something everyone needs that would work even better without the need of FIAT.. and make that your plan.
then you will become one of the elite.
for me food is an essential which is why for the last year i have been casually prompting the likes of foodler. just-eat, and other food delivery establishments. which are slowing becoming interested.
next stage is getting wholesalers, suppliers, manufacturers to accept bitcoin so that its even easier to convince retailers that get stock from these suppliers to shift away from fiat.(well maybe not shift away, but easier to include bitcoin)
as a bitcoin miner you are not one of the people working in the mines you are the owner operator, you make an investment, pay your expenses and keep the profit. the hardware in a sense are your workers and they perform the labour. this is text book case of capitalism.
the link between bitcoin and fiat means they are basically interchangeable. it follows that bitcoin economics will simply reflect economics as we know it - a minority of people holding the majority of wealth. yes there is a whole new arena of opportunities and some people will get rich but this is exactly the system we now have in place, nothing will have changed except the addition of a few more wealthy people.
economic opportunity is not economic revolution. your argument can be made for the internet itself as it has provided more economic opportunities (and made more people wealthy) with less barrier to entry than anything (including bitcoin) before it.
look, the point of the post was to get people thinking about the distribution and accumulation of bitcoin. it doesn't have to be the same as our current model. for example, and this is only a thought experiment, do not spam me
what if you only got to keep 50% of your earnings and the rest were distributed across the network? every bitcoin user (ignoring the technical problems of identifying individual users) would have a steady stream of income - not much but they could always make more by mining themselves or investing. maybe even enough for basic living? yes they would be getting something for nothing but so what? most executives make salaries that are disproportionation to the amount of revenue that they are directly responsible for. if you want a economic revolution it can't just be the same old same old, you have to try something new.
