It's not really possible to understand Bitcoin if you don't know how broken our current money is and how much damage it has caused.
This website collects stats from the beginning of purely fiat monetary system. https://wtfhappenedin1971.com
Eh? Almost every single day we see a HN headline where a rugpull, hack, or other scam has taken vast amounts of bitcoin away from owners.
Obviously bitcoin is not resistant to your own stupidity. If you send your bitcoin to a scammer, it's your own fault. However, if you're careful and manage your security well, it is impossible to confiscate.
Of those three points, consumerism is the only one that bitcoin fixes, as it’s nigh useless as a currency right now, but excels at concentrating wealth[0] and burning carbon.
[0] 0.04% own 63% of bitcoin; 2% own 94% https://medium.com/coinmonks/bitcoin-and-the-concentration-o...
Consumerism is caused by forced spending and growth through inflation. People who spend less are punished.
The article you linked looks just at bitcoin addresses, which is wildly inaccurate method, because it's possible to create infinite amount of addresses. In addition, it's impossible to know how many people are behind those big addresses which belong to exchanges, investment funds, nation states and so forth. This article[0] is more accurate, and puts the number at 2% of entities own 71.5% of bitcoin, where entities could still be multiple people.
[0] https://insights.glassnode.com/bitcoin-supply-distribution/
Brilliant.
This actually made me laugh.
Also - to acquire Bitcoin: https://xkcd.com/538/
https://www.reddit.com/r/terraluna/comments/rs8hfv/how_to_bu...
Economic inefficiency is a problem of the current monetary system, caused by its centralization and inflationary nature, and this is the problem which bitcoin is trying to fix. Most of the issues in the world today are caused by our current monetary system, from wealth inequality to consumerism and environmental problems.
He is suggesting that the monetary system should be even more centralized, and we should move into even more centrally planned economy, like in Soviet Union. This time however, they're planning to use big data to solve the economic calculation problem and to control consumer behavior. This is completely immoral, and ends up destroying both personal and economic freedoms in a society. This problem is very well understood, and no one seriously suggests central planning unless they are evil and want to decrease freedom and equality in a society.
We already have too much central planning in our current system. Central bank digital currencies would be the last step in this process of completely monopolizing money, and giving governments and central banks the absolute authority of where money is invested and how it is spent.