This is a perfect example of a non-answer. I have no idea how many people that is.
Don't be ridiculous, it's a crystal clear answer. Something like 30 people I'd guess, a hundred at most, and probably a lot less.
That is the closest anyone has ever answered. Thanks.
Even if it were the number 1000, its not enough people. For example, Wikidpedia is under the control of about 30 people. Yet they are affecting the thinking of most of those on the internet. Bitcoin is not operating like this.
Of course it's not enough if it stays like that. What makes it promising is that it seems unlikely that it will stay that way because it would be against OpenCoin's best interests. And even if OpenCoin doesn't deliver, others could, based on the same principles. Or using Open Transactions. The two aren't even mutually exclusive.
Bitcoin operates under different "thinking". Its decentralized, as in no central point of usage.
Don't patronise me, I know how Bitcoin works.
That was a non-patronizing remark. Excuse me if you thought it was "aimed" at you. It was
that way.
Imagine a system that is actually so decentralized that it actually gets rid of itself. That is, it does its job so well, of bringing together a seller and buyer of bitcoin, that it becomes redundant, even useless. Imagine this system being made of free software, using a web programming language that is second only to the first (primary) web programming language. Imagine people having their own local bitcoin markets and forgetting that this forum exists.