What happens when one big player, say Blackrock or China, buys thousands of bitcoins? Bitcoin is very susceptible to whale speculation and that's how it all will end eventually.
IGOexiled already said it, but the difference between BTC and gold is that BTC relies on a very complex infrastructure and gold can be held and traded as is.
Nodes control the bitcoin network. Nodes run bitcoin clients, the largest of which is bitcoin core, but there are like a dozen popular clients.
The protocol changes over time, and enhancements are regularly made. From small changes to significant changes like SegWit and TapRoot. The "communities" that develop the popular bitcoin clients debate and come to a consensus on changes that will be accepted and implemented in all bitcoin clients.
All that is needed to add the ability to ban accounts is to have a major false flag that scares people enough, a call for emergency measures to implement a blacklist in the bitcoin protocol, and the bitcoin clients to agree to implement that blacklist. They would likely do it in such a way that it would use approved government lists (e.g. from FBI, CIA, U.N., Interpol, etc.).
Once a majority of the nodes on the network upgrade their clients to the newest version containing the blacklists, then instantly blacklists will become a thing. To me, the likelihood of this seems incredibly high. There are already plenty of rumors that Blackrock and Coinbase may join forces to push a fork that would move from proof of work to proof of stake, for example, so certainly a 9/11 style event could easily force something like blacklists.
The only recourse is to hard fork, and those opposed would need to maintain the bitcoin clients that do not accept the blacklists. In general, over time, only one fork will win, and that would probably be the one that is legally mandated in the emergency act of congress that would happen after the false flag.
Remember BCH? How are they doing now?
Similar things have already happened on Ethereum with Circle and USDC freezing TornadoCash accounts.
Not trying to doom and gloom, rather, pointing out that if you want crypto out of government control then you need to get involved, run nodes, build new blockchains or participate in alternatives, spread knowledge, and/or loudly advocate now before the false flags happen.
The idea that the ruling class would just allow themselves to be superseded, and not fight to the death to control any alternatives, is..well, that's not going to happen.
Start preparing and advocating and getting involved now.
No technology is control proof (cybersecurity 101) and no currency is immune to manipulation (economics 101). It seems cryptocurrency ideologues are illiterate in both spheres.
That being said, BTC has proven to be a good investment.
What happens when one big player, say Blackrock or China, buys thousands of bitcoins? Bitcoin is very susceptible to whale speculation and that's how it all will end eventually.
This is the closest you can get to how it might be manipulated. An private intel software firm controls the most crypto in the world.
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/these-are-worlds-largest-corporate-holders-bitcoin
Besides all the alt coins out there, not to mention Monero, the cat's out of the bag even if it was created by intel agencies.
Explain how to spend a bitcoin during a blackout, then show me a one-year period where nobody in LA experienced a blackout.
The power company controls the bitcoin.
My bitcoin was stolen by the FBI by intercepting the message confirming its transfer to the merchant on the silk road.
Value when stolen: ~$100, value today: ~$45,000.
IGOexiled already said it, but the difference between BTC and gold is that BTC relies on a very complex infrastructure and gold can be held and traded as is.
Nodes control the bitcoin network. Nodes run bitcoin clients, the largest of which is bitcoin core, but there are like a dozen popular clients.
The protocol changes over time, and enhancements are regularly made. From small changes to significant changes like SegWit and TapRoot. The "communities" that develop the popular bitcoin clients debate and come to a consensus on changes that will be accepted and implemented in all bitcoin clients.
All that is needed to add the ability to ban accounts is to have a major false flag that scares people enough, a call for emergency measures to implement a blacklist in the bitcoin protocol, and the bitcoin clients to agree to implement that blacklist. They would likely do it in such a way that it would use approved government lists (e.g. from FBI, CIA, U.N., Interpol, etc.).
Once a majority of the nodes on the network upgrade their clients to the newest version containing the blacklists, then instantly blacklists will become a thing. To me, the likelihood of this seems incredibly high. There are already plenty of rumors that Blackrock and Coinbase may join forces to push a fork that would move from proof of work to proof of stake, for example, so certainly a 9/11 style event could easily force something like blacklists.
The only recourse is to hard fork, and those opposed would need to maintain the bitcoin clients that do not accept the blacklists. In general, over time, only one fork will win, and that would probably be the one that is legally mandated in the emergency act of congress that would happen after the false flag.
Remember BCH? How are they doing now?
Similar things have already happened on Ethereum with Circle and USDC freezing TornadoCash accounts.
Not trying to doom and gloom, rather, pointing out that if you want crypto out of government control then you need to get involved, run nodes, build new blockchains or participate in alternatives, spread knowledge, and/or loudly advocate now before the false flags happen.
The idea that the ruling class would just allow themselves to be superseded, and not fight to the death to control any alternatives, is..well, that's not going to happen.
Start preparing and advocating and getting involved now.
No technology is control proof (cybersecurity 101) and no currency is immune to manipulation (economics 101). It seems cryptocurrency ideologues are illiterate in both spheres.
That being said, BTC has proven to be a good investment.