>Those saying BTC has no inherent value (as opposed to gold, for example) are completely overlooking the fact that BTC is the only kind of exchange that can be used for illicit activities in a relatively untraceable manner (good luck buying stuff on SR using gold).
Alternative equivalents like litecoin work equally well.
That's why I think bitcoin is bound to collapse. There's no a priori reason to use one root over another, and given the choice, why would you pick the one where "satoshi" has already assigned himself 25% of the wealth?
Do you have any reason to believe that the wealth distribution of other coins (forked from Bitcoin) looks much different? With an deflationary currency you will always have early adopters that own a large percentage of the wealth.
I believe once a less deflationary alternative arises (which will surely happen sooner or later, there's no inherent reason behind bitcoin's "half every year" mechanism - I'm surprised if all the current alternatives just blindly copy that) it will win out over bitcoin.
Alternative equivalents like litecoin work equally well.
That's why I think bitcoin is bound to collapse. There's no a priori reason to use one root over another, and given the choice, why would you pick the one where "satoshi" has already assigned himself 25% of the wealth?