Bitcoin Being Hijacked
We are witnessing the end of an epic period. The days of bitcoin, at least according to the original values, are over. This is what happens when the wolf enters the henhouse.
It is something that started in 2017 and has only grown. Some feel it is a good thing because it will send price upward. However, if you believe in the value espoused by the Cypherpunks and Satoshi Nakamoto, it is a time of reckoning.
Bitcoin is being hijacked and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The end is near in terms of the concept of freedom, sovereignty, and accessibility. Instead, we are left with more of the same.
Wall Street is now in the game and it is now over. This is what happens when the big fish come to play.
It is a statement I made a number of years ago and received some pushback. Fast forward 3 or so years, and it is crystal clear.
Fixed Money
There is nothing surprising about what is taking place. We has a basic fact that most advocates overlook:
Historically, fixed money always pools.
Read that again. Fixed money always pools.
This means that the few end up holding the bulk of the money. Without the ability to expand, the flow of capital is always to those who are operating in excess.
Bitcoin is fixed money. Some think this an advantage, a point I consistently pushed back upon. Looking at what took place throughout the centuries shows how this is going to turn out.
Mind you, those HODLing some will likely end up seeing massive gains. Bitcoin can be acquired in two ways: mining or by purchase.
This means those with the resources are able to get into the game. Who has more of that than Wall Street? Their ability to scoop up large amounts means that it is rapidly moving away from the tenets espoused so long ago.
It is something that is just getting started.
Michael Saylor
This guy is a hero to many Bitcoin Maxis. The problem is that he is an example of what is taking place.
Again, most love him because his buying provides the opportunity for the price to move higher. It does not, however, promote the ideas of freedom.
According to a [Coindesk article], Microstrategy is now holding 152,333 BTC. That is .7% of the total supply that will ever exist. The numbers get worse if we believe that 4M-5M bitcoin were lost. This could move his holdings up to .95%.
Here is where the real problem comes in: Michael Saylor is a small fish. When it comes to money, he is in the minor leagues.
Blackrock got a lot of attention with its application for a spot ETF. Here is where we see the massive players starting to take an interest. Saylor's holding of $4.5 billion is peanuts to a financial institution that has over $10 trillion in assets under management.
Just quick math, 1% is $100 billion, or roughly 25x what Saylor has in BTC.
Wall Street Warming To Bitcoin
Have you noticed how warm Wall Street CEOs are suddenly becoming? Did you notice the supportive words Larry Fink of Blackrock had for bitcoin? This is a warning.
Wall Street is coming in a massive way. This means they will be bringing lot of dollars with them to buy up what is on the market. This is how they assume control.
We already know that many Wall Street banks are setting up custodian services for cryptocurrency. That means they are going to be putting their clients into it.
All of these funds that are being proposed, if they are settled with the asset, means that they will be buying even more. A Blackrock ETF could quickly grow into tens of billions of dollars.
Again, this is great for price but not so much for the ideals of Satoshi.
Handing these coins over to Wall Street is playing right into their hands. Long time cryptocurrency advocates understand the not your keys, not your crypto. Sadly, the general public is not going to operate from this premise. They will simply do what is easy which is buying these assets their JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs.
Once again, we see massive counterparty risk entering the equation.
Even Bigger Fish
If Wall Street isn't bad enough, what happens if the biggest fish of them all get involved?
By this we mean central banks and sovereign wealth funds. Here we see some numbers that get mind blowing. Many theorize that, at some point, central banks might hold bitcoin on their balance sheets. This would not be surprising.
We also are likely to see wealth funds like the Saudis buying some BTC, if they aren't doing so already. When it comes to playing in this game, these entities have insane capital being generated on a monthly basis.
In the end, they might not be able to control the network but that is of little concern. The coin distribution is what they seek. Between your major financial institutions, central banks, and sovereign wealth funds, we are dealing with tens of trillions in capital.
Framed in that way, 1 million bitcoin at $100K is $100 billion, a small number in aggregate to these entities.
This is how bitcoin is being hijacked. The big players will end up taking over.
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True, but anybody had and still has a chance to buy a piece of the cake before all the institutional money gets in and we see new alltimehighs!
Again, we have yes they can get in on the green candles. But what then?
That is the point.
When it comes to the issue of Michael Saylor, I think it's more of a bittersweet establishment. Maxi wants the price to go up, but fears for the decentralization and freedom. I feel that it's the open market and while an establishment shouldn't own that much Bitcoin, people are rooting for blackrock and microstrategy, because of the hope they bring to the crypto verse at large. We can't have our cake and eat it
I dont know if they fear freedom or decentralization. But what we do see is Wall Street entering and they are into neither. That is not their game.
In terms of the distribution, they can buy much of it up.
What people? I dunno who u guys know in bitcoin space but most are not just price price price shills as referred to above. Bitcoin is the most secure and decentralized network. Large party’s buying doesn’t change this at all. I don’t know one hitcoiner who’s just cheering price. I think something is really being missed here.
Very true. It’s sad to see a get clouded by the hope of another all time high, Neglecting fundamentals in the process. By the time people realize how this big money will be after manipulating the system at the expense of retail investors. It will be too late.
Great post @taskmaster4450!
You made me think about the fixed money characteristic of BTC.
I understand what you mean. But we also have the not fixed fiat. And it does not help either.
So maybe decentralization is the key.
"Sound money should be made to HODL"
Expanding money should me made to circulate.
Always secure and centralized.
That is why, although not perfect, the Hive ecosystem is so interesting.
Well all of crypto has the potential because this can be expanded to meet the needs.
But too many believe inflation bad, deflation good not realizing they have been in a deflationary cycle for more than a decade.
I say once again, the only way to survive is create a DAO. A charter, a constitutionn, a framework that has legal value but is decentralized, that way we can protect the ideals for which bitcoin was created for...
Legal value meaning approved by the legal system?
Then it is done from the beginning because that gives control to the system.
Yes, but even that has to be decentralized, coz in today's age no one trusts a lawyer
The legal system isnt decentralized. If you are trying to adhere to their laws you are in their system.
But it can be in the future, they're creating DAOs for that...
That's true and there exists many big fish also who are still remain hidden and accumulating $BITCOIN . It's not a very good news because little by little they are increasing their holding and after a certain time most of asset will go to their hand means Bitcoin will be in the hand of few people and they can easily do whatever they want in that time. It will allow them to control the whole market and general people will suffer loss at the end.
Well I am not sure they are hidden..at least they are starting to emerge.
One is Blackrock and not are bigger than that.
And Bitcoin will be the uncontrollable settlement layer between the big money players
They are currently almost unstoppable, when they take over Bitcoin, then are truly unstoppable
Well I tend to believe crypto is the solution since there are tentacles that we can expand. Open source, decentralized and distributed in totality is something they cannot stop.
Take Ethereum. They might be able to control that but they cannot stop hundreds of forks of the code.
Very true, we can always fork ofcourse
Forking always works but the question does the value follow. It did with Hive, not so much with the Bitcoin forks. So it will be interesting to see how it unfolds in the future.
Absolutely
Take over bitcoin? What are you talking about? This isn’t happening. Are you suggesting a 51% attack? What do u mean?
No, not an attack. Just that they have so much Bitcoin and drive up the cost of transactions so much that Bitcoin is not so usable for the average person anymore.
It's not all doom and gloom. But your piece of BTC and hold it in your own wallet.
Only way to ensure you are part of the counter establishment.
Hold the asset like all the others that hold them, don't give up on the control of the fixed money.
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You are right on point with this analysis, but it's the major institutions that have fueled the major rallies in 2017 and 2021 while retail FOMOs in and tries to eek out profits. The large IBs made their money on the way up, sold the peak, rinse and repeat once the bottom is in to start accumulating again & create another FOMO bull run. Story as old as time. To win in this game, just copy Blackrock and Goldman with a few account trackers for important US politicians and you have a recipe for success (if generating profits is the goal).
I think the way to win the game is to keep buiding around them. There is enough open source software being developed that can be forked and used for the purpose of freedom.
I have long worried about the network too, tbh - as more and more people can't set up the kind of rig you'd need to mine in their basement because of how costly it is to do so now, it's moving to mining farms. Theoretically people own shares in these and that's all well and good but what's to stop a big company (like Blackrock) from owning a mining farm and suddenly not renewing everyone's contracts or buying them out or however that works to own shares when they've amassed the 51%, or gone in cahoots with other companies where combined they own 51%? The harder it is to mine, the less decentralized it gets.
I appreciate Bitcoin for starting the ball rolling, but I really don't think it's the best at all. All the things people complain about crypto for, especially the electricity use, are things that Bitcoin does and I'm constantly having to explain to people that not all crypto works the same.
I am not sure a 51% attach on Bitcoin can take place. There are a number of major mining farms, that is true. But they are rather large and competing against each other. Could they all be taken over, I guess it is possible.
But would Wall Street care about the network if it can hold the majority of the coins.
They will not be able to 51% attack. Literally not happening…
Great post. It will get more and more expensive for small buyers to be able to acquire fractions of BTC.
Maybe the whole plan was to take money from the institutions by creating Bitcoin! :D This is the big wealth transfer that everyone is talking about?
Just kidding but worth a thought :)
Once these big players control most of the distribution, it will be quite hard for new players to join in on accumulating BTC. In a way, they're building their business on top of BTC and retail investors will have to go through and the core tenets of why BTC was created will remain on the background.
This just isn’t true. It’s becoming easier every year for new players to join. These parties will not control bitcoin.
Watching Saylor talk sometimes, I get the feeling that he is actually a believer in the freedom that BTC can potentially provide.
Sadly for him that big belief and and his consequent bet on it may not pan out.
Precisely as a byproduct of those like himself (except much larger and more powerful).
BTC is not extremely flexible which makes it good for security but not utility.
He might. I cannot speak to his beliefs about freedom.
What I can say is the likes of Blackrock, Goldman, or JPMorgan arent worried about that.
For sure.
He is a true believer. I love Task but he’s missing the mark on this one I’m my humble opinion. I don’t know one person who is a fan of Sailor due to “price” either. No doubt there’s some out here but most respect his stance on freedom and principles.
It has been the game right from the onset but the truth is those we fight for are usually the once fighting us. As for me and my house hold Hive got us covered
This was always going to happen which is not a bad thing as we will all benefit by having crypto being worth far more than what it is now. The window will close quickly on this with liquidity on exchanges drying up in no time.
It is good for the ones in it now, that is true. But what about the billions who are not? This is the main issue.
It is quite worrying. With great wealth comes great control of the markets. Maybe we will see a Hive strategy and bitcoiners will fork the forkin' forkers.
Forking the network is a defense. That is one way to keep it going. However, as we know, forking Bitcoin doesnt mean you get Bitcoin.
All the forks are are minimal compared to the real thing. I see no reason why this will change.
But other networks, can be a different story.
We will see how this plays out in the future. As you say, it is going against what Satoshi had in mind so, maybe one day there will be enough concern in the community the create a Bitcoin V2 that holds to that vision.
I understand it won't be Bitcoin but Bitcoin value is only really a reflection of trust in the network. That trust could move somewhere else.
Ironic since, at this moment, I dont see the network at risk. I see that is beyond a 51% attack. The coins are what is in jeopardy, of pooling in Wall Street etal hands.
I do wonder if we will see another fork that is embraced like BTC.
This just isn’t true. If te becoming easier Ti buy bitcoin every year. Lightening payments are thriving and I just don’t see at all what ur saying. How will this be so?
All cults are cults. toxic maxis are no different from organized religion at this point
You’ll find a small minority like this in any space. Most of the community is libertarian pro freedom minded. Bitcoin is doing just fine and us Hive fam should be pro bitcoin.
oh i know, but that doesn't change the fact that narrow-minded approaches to alternatives to the Dollar hurts everyone, that was just the point I was making. I'm all for inclusive over exclusion
Sad as it might be, it's the nature of the world.
If some esoteric/minority idea turns out to be really "cool," the big fish want to come in and play, and history will show that they invariably destry the original ideals in doing so.
From direct experience... in the late 1970's some Wall Street gook determined that rare old postage stamps were a great hedge against inflation and had a great chance for appreciation. within a few years what had previously been purely a hobbyist driven market suddenly became an investment driven market. Certainly, many saw 50% a year gains for 4-5 years, but then people started to want to cash in on their investments.
And the market crashed. Badly.
Problem being that the hobbyists who has created the original steadily increasing market had been largely driven out by the skyrocketing prices... so they gave up their collections or sold them when prices were high... and they were nowhere to be found (and didn't have enough money) when the house of cards came tumbling down. FORTY YEARS later, that particular collectibles market is still not back to where it was... before the wolves came to play.
I don't copnsider them "wolves." That's an insult to wolves. "Locusts" would be a more apt description...
=^..^=
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This is sad. But fortunately blockchain is not only bitcoin. I think we will have to go back right to where it started where only small group of nerds can bother to understand and use it, because it's not user friendly, accepted and easy to get to. This time around it will also be attacked with the full force of corporations and gov's. Valuable things are rarely easy to get.
Who cares? Unless you are one of the folks with unrealistic wealth that get enjoyment from a pissing contest. Like Musk vs Zuck
As per large institutions, well why not slowly build relationships with government influencers in preparation for a future bailout just in case bitcoin becomes too big to fail.
As a little dog having to survive in a dog eat dog world, I like to live off the pieces that fall off the big dogs. Or, maybe live from the treats of the Big Whales on Hive.
Every system has flaws and incipient problems. Including banking systems and having US$ as the leading indicator and valuator of most things relating to growing money.
If bitcoin was following it's original intent we would care less what the current price is or will be. But, as you say, there is a hijacking happening but that is not new. Look how big Google got from playing and wanting to control internet traffic.
Thanks again for the share and warning about the big fish in the ocean. It is another reminder to live off sardines and not whales. !lol
“ Again, most love him because his buying provides the opportunity for the price to move higher. It does not, however, promote the ideas of freedom.“
A lot of assumption here. Love ya but when it comes to bitcoin it’s hard not to see a personal bias from ya Task.
I dunno what pool of people ur getting this from but I don’t know one person in space who’s a Sailor fan because of price. They respect him for his reasoning and take. No doubt there’s some just pro shilling price but it’s not the majority at all. I’ll never Understand ur anti bitcoin takes whej bitcoin is the most decentralized secure network. Bitcoin snd Hive compliant each other. No need to choose between them. Without bitcoin there would be no Hive. I think ur brilliant on much! But ur take on bitcoin won’t age well.
I was honestly surprised when the big dogs decided they wanted In on Bitcoin, but I'm not alarmed just yet. It's when they decide they wanna ditch the middleman and go straight to setting up their own mining rigs. Forcefully centralizing an inherently decentralized network is when that network's values die.
Interesting and points I haven’t taken into account.