Quote from: arbitrage001 on August 21, 2014, 02:16:53 PM

Quote from: Anders on August 21, 2014, 10:08:54 AM

Of the world's over 7 billion people, how many can today afford or even practically buy bitcoins? Not many percentage wise. And someone said that 70% of the U.S. population today don't even know what bitcoin is.

So how is that fair? It isn't. Because the opportunity to buy early is very lopsidedly distributed in society.

What about in the future? Let's say that a fraction of a percent of the world's population become very wealthy by having bought bitcoins early. The price of one bitcoin has become extremely high. Would that be a fair monetary system? Could be! Cheesy

Why? Price/performance is progressing exponentially for information technology, and as Ray Kurzweil has pointed out, even material goods are becoming information technology.

This means that within a few decades people will be able to 3D print a Big Mac for free. And a decade after that, a flying Ferrari can be 3D printed for free. And then how many bitcoins you own will not matter that much. Ha ha.

I don't really see what point you are trying to make here.

Are you saying bitcoin is not fair because most people do not know what it is and hence not able to invest in it?

Yes! It can be seen as unfair that in a time where we have entered the information age, that a severely disproportional distribution of bitcoins becomes a reality just because most people have been excluded from early investments. At the same time, if bitcoin had been launched with some kind of model for even distribution it would likely have failed miserably. So I think the bitcoin model, with deflation and all that, has been the correct approach.

What I'm wondering now is if bitcoin is socially fair enough to become mainstream. And I think it may be fair enough! Sure, there is a risk of a very disproportional distribution of bitcoins, but at the same time bitcoin has to compete with all the other cryptocurrencies and fiat money. So there is a chance that bitcoin becomes a mainstream currency in a socially acceptable way.