So when all the 11 million BTC are finally mined, and they are all held in cold storage by a handful of billionaires and corporations, what good will they be to anybody else?
Who knows.
Couldn't you say the same thing about any publicly traded stock, since it also has limited shares that billionaires could snap up??
Guess time will tell.
Xactly, which is why "a handful of billionaires and corporations" wouldn't have it in their best interest to do so. Self interest is what keeps participants looking out for the health of the entire system. Like what actual "free markets" do, unlike centrally controlled markets geared toward a half-dozen large conglomerates in each industry (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, CNN, NBC, Chase, BankofAmerica, etc.).
I own half a dozen now, and probably three times that number over the years. Besides BTC, there are over 1,000 other cryptocurrencies to choose from, if any one of those begins to outperform BTC.
I believe it is 21 million and each one divisible by 100million. I am not sure how keeping everything in a BTC playground works since it can not increase the supply via loans and Interest. Only the value can change.
There are only about 3 million left to be mined. It is assumed that as more institutions buy into Bitcoin that the average amount per wallet will drop...and that more entities will be holding.