Do you really think they would make us the new 1% elites? Just so that they can move to a system after the big crash?
In my discussion with my friends and family about bitcoin, I regularly hear "it's not fair that early adopters are making so much money! The powers-that-be won't let it continue."
Beyond the "what-is-a-fair-reward-for-risk" debate, I also question how much money earlier adopters are actually making. In fact, unless you are extremely risky with your investments, I think what I'll refer to as your "lifetime wealth" is unlikely to increase by more than a single order of magnitude
even if bitcoin hits $100,000 per coin.
Consider Bob who invested $5000 in bitcoin in December 2012 at $14 giving him 360 BTC. At the time, bitcoin seemed very high-risk (a lot has changed that we tend to forget), so this was a large risk-adjusted investment for someone who was likely quite young.
Bob sees the price hit $28 in February, and thinks "sweet, I'll sell half my coins to re-coup my initial investment!! Life is good and bitcoin ROCKS!!!"
Now Bob has 180 BTC.
But the price is climbing....and climbing....Bob is annoyed that he sold 180 BTC at $25 because the price is now $100. He has an epiphany that bitcoin will never crash again--it's on its way to becoming a new world currency. So he holds all the way up to $266 and is euphoric!
And then BOOM. The market crashes. His illusions are shattered and, with one eye on the 2011 crash chart, he sells another half of his coins at $100. Now he has 90 BTC ($9,000) and has re-couped his initial investment plus $9000.
It all happened so fast, that first bubble, he thinks. Bob cracks out Excel and comes up with a plan: divest 15% each time bitcoin doubles in price. This way, he still wins even if bitcoin one day fails (and he can sleep at night) and he wins-big if it succeeds:
If bitcoin hits $100,000 per coin, Bob has extracted $780,000 in cash and has about 18 bitcoins left (1.8 million dollars). This is hardly "elite."