Is it possible for somebody to collect all bitcoins?

AliceWonder

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Quote from: williamj2543 on July 21, 2014, 05:35:22 PM

Already there are thousands if not millions of bitcoins that are lost, meaning they are stored on a address where the private key is forgotten or lost. Also there will be some people that won't want to sell you your bitcoins.

If I recall, some were sent to invalid addresses that can never be recovered.

The client checked for address validity but the protocol didn't, and some coding mistakes in home brew solutions sent some coins to invalid addresses and the transactions were accepted.

williamj2543

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Get ready for PrimeDice Sig Campaign!

Quote from: Harley997 on July 21, 2014, 06:10:16 PM

Quote from: R2D221 on July 21, 2014, 01:51:26 PM

They couldn't possibly buy all coins because I'm not selling mine. As simple as that.

This is not the only reason why this would not be possible; every 10 minutes the miners "create" an additional 25 BTC via found blocks so the maximum amount of time anyone could potentially "own" "all" of the bitcoin would be for 10 minutes.

Unless he owned almost all the mining power. Like at least 90%.

Harley997

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Quote from: R2D221 on July 21, 2014, 01:51:26 PM

They couldn't possibly buy all coins because I'm not selling mine. As simple as that.

This is not the only reason why this would not be possible; every 10 minutes the miners "create" an additional 25 BTC via found blocks so the maximum amount of time anyone could potentially "own" "all" of the bitcoin would be for 10 minutes.

williamj2543

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Get ready for PrimeDice Sig Campaign!

Already there are thousands if not millions of bitcoins that are lost, meaning they are stored on a address where the private key is forgotten or lost. Also there will be some people that won't want to sell you your bitcoins.

Kipsy89

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Relax!

Quote from: AliceWonder on July 21, 2014, 05:15:10 PM

That was a joke, well, a half-joke.

I think it is going on - I think a lot (but not all) of altcoins are being produced by a ring for the purpose of hoarding bitcoins.

And that method doesn't result in buy orders, not from them.

Eventually when more people catch on, the game will be up and we will see them start selling bitcoins for cash as they move on to their next scam.
And bitcoin will drop in value.

Whoa man, I thought for a second you're really pulling this off. Man, that'd be not very nice. But have you been to the Altcoin section? That's some pretty messed up stuff there! Hundreds of altcoins. And each and every one of them seems to have their proponents who care for it!

Yakamoto

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Quote from: AliceWonder on July 21, 2014, 05:15:10 PM

That was a joke, well, a half-joke.

I think it is going on - I think a lot (but not all) of altcoins are being produced by a ring for the purpose of hoarding bitcoins.

And that method doesn't result in buy orders, not from them.

Eventually when more people catch on, the game will be up and we will see them start selling bitcoins for cash as they move on to their next scam.
And bitcoin will drop in value.

A perfect time to amass more!

Even if they start selling, there will be a pretty big backing, even if the price does drop. They'd have to be selling a lot of BTC in order for it to be serious, and even then there's a lot of support at the $400 range.

I'm not saying that your suggestion isn't true, it's a lot more accurate than some may think.

I see what you mean, and I do believe that it is a likely scenario. It will be interesting to see what happens.

AliceWonder

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That was a joke, well, a half-joke.

I think it is going on - I think a lot (but not all) of altcoins are being produced by a ring for the purpose of hoarding bitcoins.

And that method doesn't result in buy orders, not from them.

Eventually when more people catch on, the game will be up and we will see them start selling bitcoins for cash as they move on to their next scam.
And bitcoin will drop in value.

Yakamoto

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Activity: 1218

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Quote from: AliceWonder on July 21, 2014, 04:47:16 PM

Soon I'll have a bunch of them. Probably never all, but a bunch.

You see, I keep creating sock pockets and from those accounts, releasing alt-coins that are pre-mined and/or ninja-mined.

Some I sell for bitcoins to suckers in an IPO and the rest to suckers after the pump.

My collection of bitcoins is growing quite rapidly, and isn't costing me any fiat.

Holy crap!

Prepare to see a huge influx of new alts being created by Jr. Members and so, we got the next money-making method over here!

Sadly, though, I don't think I'm going to ever be able to match your speed of... "production", as I'm not very good with creating alts, no matter how hard I try.

A lot of my gathering of BTC is done via working in the service section (writing mainly) and through signature campaigns. Never bought any BTC, but I may in the future.

AliceWonder

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Soon I'll have a bunch of them. Probably never all, but a bunch.

You see, I keep creating sock pockets and from those accounts, releasing alt-coins that are pre-mined and/or ninja-mined.

Some I sell for bitcoins to suckers in an IPO and the rest to suckers after the pump.

My collection of bitcoins is growing quite rapidly, and isn't costing me any fiat.

Beliathon

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https://youtu.be/PZm8TTLR2NU

Quote from: CrackedLogic on July 21, 2014, 12:31:03 PM

Quote from: str4wm4n on July 21, 2014, 12:26:55 PM

bitcoins = pokemon

Gotta catch 'em all!

What would happen if somebody collected all of them and they sold 1 bitcoin for like $50000,would you move onto another coin or would you try to get the coins circulating again?

By the time one person collected even 33% of all BTC, 1 Bitcoin would already be selling for well over $50,000 each. Personally, if I knew some entity was trying to get them all, I'd only sell mine for 100x curent market value, and I'd never sell more than half my BTC even at that price.

Essentially, this is why it is impossible to collect them all.

DjPxH

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Quote from: R2D221 on July 21, 2014, 01:51:26 PM

They couldn't possibly buy all coins because I'm not selling mine. As simple as that.

What if they just decide to use force? Imagine you're the last person who hasn't given up their coins. You now have to fear that every sound you hear and every shadow you see in the corner of your eyes is a creepy guy who's after every single satoshi! If he has some weird attraction to BTC, you'd have to face a very aggressive and potentially dangerous collector!

InwardContour

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Quote from: R2D221 on July 21, 2014, 01:51:26 PM

They couldn't possibly buy all coins because I'm not selling mine. As simple as that.

There are also many coins which are lost forever, encrypted in wallets with forgotten passwords or wallets.dat files lying inside some old broken hard disks.

R2D221

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They couldn't possibly buy all coins because I'm not selling mine. As simple as that.

DjPxH

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Definitely possible but not very probable. They could be the fetish obsession of some weird and creepy collector one day. He'd polish his BTC all day long and show them to strangers without being asked to. Talk about tainted coins!

acs267

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Quote from: CrackedLogic on July 21, 2014, 12:47:46 PM

Quote from: Yakamoto on July 21, 2014, 12:44:43 PM

Quote from: Cryptopher on July 21, 2014, 12:40:34 PM

All the bitcoins will be mined in 2140. Yeah, they're DEFINITELY going to be alive then.

So what exactly have you thought through? This seems like a poor argument.

Lets say this person decided to buy them after 2140.

I it seems like, I was just quite curious when I thought of that.

The difficulty will be sky high in 2140.

But you probably didn't think about that. And I only told you half of the answer.

Cryptopher

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Keep it dense, yeah?

Quote from: KeyserSozeMC on July 21, 2014, 01:05:09 PM

Is it possible to collect all the apples from the entire world? ( Comparing BTC with apples doesn't make sense, but the answer is similar )

Wipe out every apple tree and you have a chance, but no doubt some kid will be growing one out of a petri dish.

There's no feasible way to collect all XBT, not in this life time. Not unless you somehow managed to get every address to send to your own address - but even that would be a logistical nightmare lol.

franky1

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if it only takes 10,000 coins to move the market price from $600 to $800, then imagine the price rise of buying 100k coins

now imagine the price just to get 1 million coins..

i ask yourself again, do you think you have the funds to buy the other 13mill coins now the price is multiple thousands of dollars per coin..

i dare ya, buy them all Cheesy

CrackedLogic

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Quote from: KeyserSozeMC on July 21, 2014, 01:05:09 PM

Is it possible to collect all the apples from the entire world? ( Comparing BTC with apples doesn't make sense, but the answer is similar )

You can always grow more apples, but i guess I understand.

barangunel

newbie

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If you are asking about buying all the bitcoins:

Quote

What if someone bought up all the existing bitcoins?

Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale. Bitcoin markets are competitive, meaning the price of a bitcoin will rise or fall depending on supply and demand. Additionally, new bitcoins will continue to be issued for decades to come. Therefore even the most determined buyer could not buy all the bitcoins in existence. This situation isn't to suggest, however, that the markets aren't vulnerable to price manipulation; it still doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset thus far.

So yeah if bitcoin won't fall the network will continue finding more coins until 2140. So the one wants to buy all of them won't be alive until all bitcoins are found Tongue

KeyserSozeMC

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I'm dying.

Is it possible to collect all the apples from the entire world? ( Comparing BTC with apples doesn't make sense, but the answer is similar )

Topic: Is it possible for somebody to collect all bitcoins? (Read 2039 times)