Is bitcoin egalitarian or is there a hierarchy of owners of the cryptocurrency?

Question

I hope my question will be well understood and well received. I see bitcoin as a passive system, as far as I know, and therefore egalitarian, but maybe there is a situation where at the point someone puts in a bid for it, the whales get the cheapest bid and at that point it creates hierarchy and inequality, I don't know, so this is why I asked the question.

As a general rule, nobody is going to treat you different as an individual owner of bitcoin whether you buy or sell it, but I don't really know. I don't know how the exchange is programmed, I don't know if it has a high frequency trading that is biased.

Does Satoshi and the original buyers of bitcoin have more power over other bitcoin owners?

Answer 1

The exchange of Bitcoin is carried out under the laws of a free market (supply and demand). The mechanics of the blockchain and Bitcoin do not intervine in the buy/sell of the cryptocurrency. The only aspect that the code of Bitcoin affects the cryptocurrency in the economic field is by its programmed scarcity which makes the currency a deflationary one, and therefore creates an upward pressure for the price (makes the price go higher).

Exchanges simply serve as a means through which people can buy or sell Bitcoins for other currencies (fiat or cryptos) and it is performed outside the blockchain. Only the transfer of the funds takes place in the blockchain.