There were initially equally few people with any incentive or motive to change the consensus. As value grew and more clamoured to mine, security increased proportional to value of the network. At first only cryptography geeks and freaks would value the largely abstract inherent value in possessing the cryptographic keys to a token on a blockchain that most people considered of no value...but those few understood the potential of a strictly limited total issuance...in a world of fiat debt slavery debasement and corruption. 'there will only ever be 21 million' As time, understanding and FOMO built up, those keys and the abstract transfer value they provide access to have increased in value.