The most astonishing thing to me is that people are carrying balances this big in a single wallet instead of spreading it around. It's a massive single point of failure, not to mention a big red...
The most astonishing thing to me is that people are carrying balances this big in a single wallet instead of spreading it around. It's a massive single point of failure, not to mention a big red target for troublemakers.
If I had a large amount of BTC, I would probably divide it among a number of wallets and store the private keys in different places, just to be safe. That way if something were to happen to one of the wallets, the damage would be limited to that subset of the coins and the remaining ones would not be at risk. Are there systems for securely managing balances distributed among many addresses? There must be. I'm sure it would be a pain to do this manually but I wouldn't think it would be an insurmountable problem for automation.
If I had that much in Bitcoin, I'd convert it to actual fiat currency (over time, that being said)! What does one gain with continuing to store such value in a cryptocurrency, apart from tax evasion?
If I had that much in Bitcoin, I'd convert it to actual fiat currency (over time, that being said)! What does one gain with continuing to store such value in a cryptocurrency, apart from tax evasion?
These are the two reasons to HODL: You intend to use Bitcoin as a currency, trading BTC directly with others in exchange for goods and services. In other words, BTC is no less "actual currency"...
These are the two reasons to HODL:
You intend to use Bitcoin as a currency, trading BTC directly with others in exchange for goods and services. In other words, BTC is no less "actual currency" than fiat, and you use it as such.
You believe that the price of Bitcoin will continue to rise and consider it a long-term investment. Why cash out now, at USD 10k, if you think it could sell for USD 20k in a year?
I've held a (very small) amount of BTC for several years myself, and my reasons for hanging onto it are a little from each column. Sure, there have been points along the way where I could have sold for more than I'd get today, but they were followed by corrections and then further growth. On the whole my holdings are worth more now than what I paid for them, so I don't see any reason to bail.
Sure, but this isn't a very small amount of Bitcoin, this is a very large amount. What can you possibly buy with US$1,000,000,000 in Bitcoin (that isn't completely nefarious) to actually make it...
Sure, but this isn't a very small amount of Bitcoin, this is a very large amount.
What can you possibly buy with US$1,000,000,000 in Bitcoin (that isn't completely nefarious) to actually make it worthwhile to hold it in that form?
Apart from those that are insanely greedy, why would you consider risking $1,000,000,000 by keeping it in a volatile form on the off chance you could have $2,000,000,000; when even 1/10th of that is more than enough for several lifetimes?
You could be greedy and nefarious and satisfy these two points, I guess?
BTC has also wavered a lot in the past two years ($20K->$5K), so I wouldn’t necessarily consider it stable, or increasing in value (insert: “yet!”). I agree it’s a better risk profile to split it...
BTC has also wavered a lot in the past two years ($20K->$5K), so I wouldn’t necessarily consider it stable, or increasing in value (insert: “yet!”).
I agree it’s a better risk profile to split it amongst multiple addresses, but I could also see a “typical” cold storage migration requiring a new keygen for security.
Not defending why it was moved, but I could see an institutional investor not caring about the details, and this could be the first step to a larger departure/sell off.
A lot of shops take Bitcoin, especially in Japan. I just bought a watch and a keyboard while I was there from Bic Camera. It didn't seem that unusual to the cashier. I think they do have a maximum...
A lot of shops take Bitcoin, especially in Japan. I just bought a watch and a keyboard while I was there from Bic Camera. It didn't seem that unusual to the cashier. I think they do have a maximum limit of like 10,000 dollars since they don't wait for confirmations. Seems like more and more shops are adopting it. My local used games store also recently started accepting it. I think there are also people who only use btc in their daily lives and they are able to buy everything they need with it, so it is not only for nefarious purposes.
They may have multiple keys protecting that one address using either a multisignature address or Shamir's Secret Sharing or a combination of the two. A single automated system is a single point of...
Are there systems for securely managing balances distributed among many addresses? There must be. I'm sure it would be a pain to do this manually but I wouldn't think it would be an insurmountable problem for automation.
A single automated system is a single point of failure. For the highest security you need multiple trusted people acting manually at the same time. That way you get human review of what's going on. (Though even that can fail with clever social engineering.)
I think he's referring to this https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/28/australian-who-says-he-invented-bitcoin-ordered-to-hand-over-up-to-5bn
Oh, Craig Wright. That guy is a fraud and a scammer. The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin remains unknown, and there are couple ways that person could definitely prove their identity if they...
Oh, Craig Wright. That guy is a fraud and a scammer. The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin remains unknown, and there are couple ways that person could definitely prove their identity if they desired to. Anyone making claims without offering cryptographic proof shouldn't be believed.
That said, this transaction could be related. Personally I doubt Wright is holding anywhere near that much BTC. But who knows.
The most astonishing thing to me is that people are carrying balances this big in a single wallet instead of spreading it around. It's a massive single point of failure, not to mention a big red target for troublemakers.
If I had a large amount of BTC, I would probably divide it among a number of wallets and store the private keys in different places, just to be safe. That way if something were to happen to one of the wallets, the damage would be limited to that subset of the coins and the remaining ones would not be at risk. Are there systems for securely managing balances distributed among many addresses? There must be. I'm sure it would be a pain to do this manually but I wouldn't think it would be an insurmountable problem for automation.
If I had that much in Bitcoin, I'd convert it to actual fiat currency (over time, that being said)! What does one gain with continuing to store such value in a cryptocurrency, apart from tax evasion?
These are the two reasons to HODL:
I've held a (very small) amount of BTC for several years myself, and my reasons for hanging onto it are a little from each column. Sure, there have been points along the way where I could have sold for more than I'd get today, but they were followed by corrections and then further growth. On the whole my holdings are worth more now than what I paid for them, so I don't see any reason to bail.
Sure, but this isn't a very small amount of Bitcoin, this is a very large amount.
What can you possibly buy with US$1,000,000,000 in Bitcoin (that isn't completely nefarious) to actually make it worthwhile to hold it in that form?
Apart from those that are insanely greedy, why would you consider risking $1,000,000,000 by keeping it in a volatile form on the off chance you could have $2,000,000,000; when even 1/10th of that is more than enough for several lifetimes?
You could be greedy and nefarious and satisfy these two points, I guess?
BTC has also wavered a lot in the past two years ($20K->$5K), so I wouldn’t necessarily consider it stable, or increasing in value (insert: “yet!”).
I agree it’s a better risk profile to split it amongst multiple addresses, but I could also see a “typical” cold storage migration requiring a new keygen for security.
Not defending why it was moved, but I could see an institutional investor not caring about the details, and this could be the first step to a larger departure/sell off.
A lot of shops take Bitcoin, especially in Japan. I just bought a watch and a keyboard while I was there from Bic Camera. It didn't seem that unusual to the cashier. I think they do have a maximum limit of like 10,000 dollars since they don't wait for confirmations. Seems like more and more shops are adopting it. My local used games store also recently started accepting it. I think there are also people who only use btc in their daily lives and they are able to buy everything they need with it, so it is not only for nefarious purposes.
They may have multiple keys protecting that one address using either a multisignature address or Shamir's Secret Sharing or a combination of the two.
A single automated system is a single point of failure. For the highest security you need multiple trusted people acting manually at the same time. That way you get human review of what's going on. (Though even that can fail with clever social engineering.)
Some more info in this article: https://cryptonews.com/news/huobi-confirms-that-usd-1b-transaction-did-not-include-their-4607.htm
Let’s all hope it was someone remembering the password to coins on a server someone set to mine in a closet early on launch and forgot about.
"Today on Ask This Old House we are going to be investigating a mysterious server rack the home owner found in a closet."
Something to do with that legal kerfuffle over the founder?
The founder of what?
I think he's referring to this https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/28/australian-who-says-he-invented-bitcoin-ordered-to-hand-over-up-to-5bn
Oh, Craig Wright. That guy is a fraud and a scammer. The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin remains unknown, and there are couple ways that person could definitely prove their identity if they desired to. Anyone making claims without offering cryptographic proof shouldn't be believed.
That said, this transaction could be related. Personally I doubt Wright is holding anywhere near that much BTC. But who knows.
Posting HN thread because the original twitter thread has little to no discussion.