> Long story short: some people will make a mint. A lot of people will lose their shirts.
Zero. Sum. Game.
Zero. Sum. Game.
bitcoin etc. can't. It is a major flaw.
That doesn't sound correct. Bitcoin didn't exist a decade ago. The amount of wealth it added can be measured directly.
But perhaps I'm not thinking of it in the right way.
It's not like we're doing anything else with our time, so we may as well have a thought experiment.
I think what the OP meant was that when the whole fiction comes crashing down (editorializing here) that the people who get rich will be those that get out first. Those who can’t get out will be owed because there simply doesn’t seem to be enough real dollars backing up the exchanges. For real wealth to be gained you want liquidity and you want to have healthy demand for the underlying product. What people want here is not actual bitcoins (or other cryptos). They want appreciation in value. However, while the prices are inflating a lot, it seems that enough people are trying exit positions to USD that the exchanges are having trouble getting enough cash to facilitate transactions.
If that all ends, the fixed sum of dollars in the exchanges will be the zero sum. Those that get out first will get it, and those that don’t will be SOL.