Quote from: claimore on September 20, 2014, 12:56:02 PM

Quote from: Waramp22 on September 20, 2014, 09:06:40 AM

Quote from: hydroxide on September 20, 2014, 08:26:39 AM

How can Bitcoin ever become a successful global currency when a single entity is in possession of 5-10% of what will ever be in circulation?! If he decides to sell at any point, huge inflation is guaranteed.
I know it's likely that he'll never sell the coins for the sake of anonymity and personal safety, or for the sake of the system. Possible he has even destroyed the private keys. But it doesn't seem certain enough that we can make that assumption.

I'm a little surprised that this hasn't been more widely discussed - so am I missing something?

The way bitcoin is designed, we can see where his coins came from. If/when he spends them, we can see the amount he spent and the amount he has left.

On the other hand...

With the government, we cannot see how many coins they have or where they came from, but they sure keep on spending!

Which would you trust?

This. Plus he will NOT sell.

Probably not, but how do you convince your mom, or your friend at the bar that the anonymous creator who holds potentially billions or trillions simply won't sell and crash the market? Even if one single satoshi was moved from any of those known addresses today the market would shit itself. People would be in hysterics.