Most of the money is a stronger hand.

Bigger hands that know how to play the media and the market...

Well, it's kind of one in the same. It's speculation that it has value.

I think sometimes people think of speculation as random fidgeting around. There's a guessing and gambling element of it, but it's based on guessing what the value is. And if it was too high or too low, there'd be opportunity for someone who knows better to long or short it.

Let's see....

Bitcoin is supposed to be a fast, cheap, private and decentralized way of sending money. That's what gives it its value.

However, that's not what's driving the price. People aren't buying bitcoin because they want to USE it. They're buying because they expect someone to pay more for it in future. It's the Greater fool theory that's playing out here

It's different from buying, say shares in a company. If the company performs well consistently, prices increases. If it messes up or gets tangled in scandals and all, prices will fall.

I don't agree with this. At all. I like that "Satoshi" rode off into the sunset. If there was a known founder it might be distracting to some people, early on anyways. But it doesn't truly matter. We could figure it out today, and it wouldn't mean that guy controls it in any way. It would just mean, oh, you're the guy who discovered this uncontrollable protocol, thanks.

A single individual holding almost 5% of all possible btc is more than just a distraction. In a way, he's got the most to lose.

In fact, I wonder if the price would have gotten this far if btc bulls knew some dude could crash the price at anytime.

Of course, he can't control all miners but he's got enough cash to dominate the scenes.

Besides, most people would readily listen to what he has to say, doesn't matter what. He could say btc has been hijacked and he's working on a better Blockchain and waited for FUD to set in

If finding his identity would give him control... wouldn't that mean he already has control and we just don't know who it is that has control? I don't really get why you think this.

If Nakamoto is simply some programmer with libertarian ideas then he doesn't have that much influence and is better off staying in the dark

But if he's connected to some syndicates, as some conspirators alleged, then he (or they) have got real power.

I wrote a play on it sometimes last year (when Steemit used to pay my bills) The Entrance of Big Brother (A Conspiratorial Play

There are many ways this could play out.

You mean bitcoin mining might evolve to be a natural monopoly.

(Which would be scary for Bitcoin itself but not exactly the same.)

I totally doubt it. I don't see why it would. It will evolve to be in more specialized hands, sure. But I don't know why there won't be lots of competition among those specialized hands.

Consider international money transfer services. There are a lot of them but only two are very popular: Western Union and Money Gram. Are they exactly competing?

(I remember there was a report of how the central bank of Nigeria tweaked financial regulations so ensure only those two could operate in the country. Some claimed money changed hands)

Businessmen are smart people. They know when to work with the competition. Amazon is Netflix competitor yet they (Netflix) use Amazon Web Service

With a proper revenue sharing formula, there's nothing preventing mining firms from merging together. (remember when two mining firms on BCH 'hijacked' the network to prevent an attack.)

Natural monopolies can occur with things like utilities, because there's a very small market relative to the startup costs.

Read estimates on expected power costs for btc mining in the nearest future? It's scary. There are other costs too. It's simply more efficient to have two or three miners doing the entire work.

After all, it's not as if they can improve the service provided. They only have to confirm transactions and record them.

I'm not anti btc. In fact, I'm trying to see how I can get in before its too late. But sometimes, I enjoy being the devil's advocate