Early last night, a massive Bitcoin transaction went down. A transaction worth an incredible $147 million with several sending addresses involved. As I have mentioned in a previous article, you can attach messages to Bitcoin transactions and tagged to this one was simply: “Shitload of Money!”
The world of Bitcoin is abuzz with speculation as to the nature of the transaction, but it seems possible that the bitcoins are moving from a lesser to a more secure form of storage. This is how it looks on the Blockchain:
Coindesk has some interesting analysis on the whole thing. Here are some excerpts:
The transaction, tagged “Shit Load of Money!” by its mystery originator, appeared on Blockchain.info early in the evening of 22nd November. It is one of the largest transactions in bitcoin’s history, by far the largest under bitcoin’s recent high prices, and represents 1.6% of all bitcoins now in circulation.
Bitcoin’s distributed nature ensures all transactions are visible on the public record, though users are identified only by 30+ character addresses (and any tags they choose to add). If the address is not already known and the user does not identify themselves in an obvious way, they remain anonymous without analysis or detective work.
Unsurprisingly, a transaction of that size has prompted the bitcoin community to do some analysis and detective work. The transaction involved a large number of sending addresses, with some of them from blocks mined in February 2010 or even earlier, prompting excited speculation they might be from Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin’s absent (and likely pseudonymous) founder.
Satoshi Nakamoto is unlikely to reveal him/herself in such an ostentatious manner, and early coins may have changed hands several times. More possibly the lucky owner is a miner from bitcoin’s early days, or a business moving the amount to a more secure form of physical storage. The humorous tag suggests an individual rather than a business.
More than anything else, what is most incredible about this to me, is the ease and low cost that was associated with moving such a large sum of money.
Full Coindesk article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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All I have to say about bitcoin is to beware. When Ben Bernanke endorses it, according to an article I just read on thedailybell.com, I would be very wary indeed.
I know it’s conspiratorial but you’ve got to wonder about the origins of bitcoin. It’s all very mysterious and nobody seems to really know where it came from. There are those who believe it’s inception actually came from some government entity. I don’t know but I’d be very careful before getting in too deep with bitcoin. I still believe you can’t go wrong with gold and silver when it comes to wealth preservation and there’s over 5000 years of history to prove it.
No, that’s actually a great observation.
People were so worried about the “Amero” (which would only have covered 3 countries) and are so worried about a “Global Currency” and “Global Government” yet are so happy to transfer their wealth into this new global digital currency.
Have we unsuspectingly moved ourselves willingly toward the “new global currency” set up to be just that.. all transactions are visible on the public record…” so everything is tracked and traced (by whoever is behind it)?
People are worried about RFID in dollar bills and being tracked/traced by credit card transactions, yet are willing to put their money into a completely traceable digital currency?
Excuse you and me for pointing out the obvious here, but Bitcoin appears to be the new “digital global currency” that everyone has been so afraid of, but now everyone is embracing like it’s the second coming.
There are definitely many reasons to be cautious about this.
Definitely something to think about. But, the code is open source and anyone can look into it. There probably isn’t a fatal flaw in the code or it would of been found already.
There might be another possibility where the secret gov. has already found a way to block or even eradicate BTC somehow and they are waiting till everyone is in and then pull the plug in some way that we haven’t figured out yet.
Just think, if you can design a virtual currency to pull in all the money of anti-gov. and anti federal reserve people this would be it. Wipe out all your enemies finances in one shot is a totalitarian gov’s wet dream.
With that said, there are other virtual currencies out there. One thing to think about is to safeguard your e-wallets for whatever virtual currency you have in a way that an Electromagnetic pulse won’t affect it.
Something like putting your e-wallet on a USB drive and putting that into a steel box so nothing from outside as in the form of an eletromagnetic pulse or other nefarious attack won’t wipe the drive data.
You gotta think about these things when dealing with the devil 🙂
I agree with the above comments.
If successful/becoming mainstream, bitcoin would affect governments both in term of challenging their seignorage capacity and shrinking their tax base (as many transactions and associated profits could go unreported).
And in front of such a threat, govs apply benign neglect and the MSM (the same who talk gold down) encourage it. A little troubling…
…Well actually… Bernanke has repeatedly shown himself to be largely unaware of MANY aspects of the true nature of money. Not sure why or how he would be able to comprehend BTCoin. And why on earth would a three letter entity (fill in the blank) ‘create’ something (muahahah!) to ensnare people (they already have that it’s called banks and credit /debit cards) which could have such massive potential to destroy the current system? Think about this: Anyone can easily and quickly create a wallet… then supply all the details of their identity… load the wallet with bitcoin… through a normal BANK transaction. THEN transfer that amt. to another wallet on Blockchain (anonymous…) then go to Brainwallet dot org …UNPLUG their computer PHYSICALLY from the internet… create a passphrase …along with a new set of bitcoin addresses NEVER BEFORE seen while completely OFFLINE… store the passphrase in their heads…. then using a phone – transfer all the wallet contents of the anonymous BLockchain wallet to the Brainwallet…. go to a different country…. procure or use a completely different internet device / appliance…. and use the brainwallet to spend all that coinage and there is NOTHING anyone could do about it and absolutely NO way to trace the transaction or stop it. You can’t trace what is in someone’s head.
so why exactly would (or COULD) any conspiratorial group or agency deliberately create such a potential for ruin to the current system? And bear in mind that if they try to take down the internet they also dismantle / disable the current digital system. You can’t take down one without taking down the other.
IF both systems are taken down (say by an EMP Solar Flare) There would be massive amounts of capital digital currency destroyed in the Feds system because it is NOT distributed everywhere… while all the transactions on the blockchain would be PRESERVED because of the very fact the distributable nature would still be intact in Non-EMP affected areas. As long as wallet holders in the affected areas had been diligent and retained their information in paper – brain – or non electronic form – they would be made whole again – as soon as they were once again able to either restore some rudimentary form of electronic communication OR if they were able to travel to an unaffected area.
Thoughts on Armstrongs take
http://www.silverdoctors.com/martin-armstrong-bitcoin-electronic-money-the-precious-metals/