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94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

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Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple million dollars is a retirement nest egg. You can stop working, stretch it carefully until you die, and leave a small sum to your heirs. To be very rich requires upwards of $100 million. Then you can access high paying investments which will generate enough income to afford a couple houses, hire help, buy a boat and a plane, and have enough left over after taxes to increase your assets to offset inflation. A…

Yes, yes, the wealth curve is essentially a vertical line at the right-hand edge. Don't pity the poor decimillionaires.

What if they are physically handicapped? What if they are lonely? What if they spend their time and energy investing in 3rd world countries?

Consider checking your prejudice at the door.

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#342
post #329

This was probably an internal transfer, but if it was payment to someone, something interesting then occurs. It then becomes valuable for the original owner to secretly mine a chain, attempting a 51% attack. They could run the attack secretly for up to 40 days and still make a profit. So you'd really need to wait 40 days before you can be sure this transfer is safe. But it gets scarier, if at the end of the 40 days a…

Every second, the amount of hashes computed on the Bitcoin network is equal to every grain of sand on earth, multiplied by 7. There isn't enough computing power available to 51% attack a chain that comes close to justify the $1 billion dollar "bounty" on this transaction.

It's quite possible, as long as the cost of the current ASICs out there is less than a billion. You can match the current world rate and secretly mine. It would be a combination of buying your own miners and renting hashrate, but mostly it would be renting. Maybe paying a big mine to do it for you.

When I saw the initial math, they said 40 days. But that doesn't include the fact that as you buy hash power, it's price would go up. But to secretly mine for a week before reorganizing the chain would be very possible with this amount of money.

I wonder if you could put in a checkpoint system. And if that could even be decentralized.

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#343

As far as the fees being so cheap, and every one else guessing about how expensive it would be to do it in a normal banking situation, F. Scott Fitzgerald is relevant: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is…

Rich people have access to plenty of services and price structures that rip them off. There is a whole industry comprising of essentially leaching off rich people.

If you're rich, you're an marked target for every Tom, Dick and Harry out there looking for a quasi-free ride (not even counting the outright criminals).

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#345
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple million dollars is more than a nest egg. You can retire immediately and provide for your family and yourself your whole life with that kind of money.

Entirely dependent on location, lifestyle, family status, etc. Yes, with $2m you can retire tomorrow and get something like $100K/year in pretty much guaranteed income not pegged to inflation. (You can argue the numbers but certainly ADDED: Yes, you're "rich" but not jet-setting in business class at resort hotels, multi-million dollar coastal city condo, eat at top restaurants on a regular basis etc. rich. Which is a…

Wait, how would you guarantee 5%? I don't see "put it in an index fund" as "pretty much guaranteed".

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#346
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like a life void of luxury is... not preferable.

Just like most things in life, I feel like it is all about the right balance. Penny pinching and then dying a millionaire sounds awful, because what's even the point of having all those millions if you lived like you had nothing the whole time? Just a number on some imaginary scorecard? Wasting away all your earnings and living a life of "luxury" with nothing in your savings is at least just as bad, because if someth…

> Penny pinching and then dying a millionaire sounds awful, because what's even the point of having all those millions if you lived like you had nothing the whole time?

Building generational wealth for your progeny.

GP said their grandfather died a multimillionaire. That money can go to his children; managed well over their lifetime it will double several times over. And learned frugality on their part means they have an even greater sum to hand to any children they have (like GP!)

And if a catastrophe struck - be it a local one like joblessness or divorce, or a global financial crisis, whatever - grandfather knows that his austerity guaranteed his children shelter, food, and education in the future. That's a powerful reason to make decisions. Hell, in our animal brains, that's probably one of the most powerful drivers of decisions: what should I do to benefit my family?

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is just me, but I don't actually consider having a couple million dollars as "rich", I know a couple folks worth hundreds of millions, and the way they behave are certainly different.

It is not 'just you', but it does peg you as being part of a tiny part of the population that can hold these beliefs. For the very very vast majority 100K in liquid funds would be a fortune they could never imagine acquiring outside of a huge lottery windfall.

GP said nothing about liquid funds, and this thread is mainly talking about people's life savings.

in this context, one million dollars is really not much. if you have no job or pension, one million in assets grants you the ability to spend about $40k a year safely. you could certainly have a comfortable retirement this way, but it would be far from a luxurious lifestyle.

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A billion was moved and we don’t know the identity of the person. Not sure what you are describing.

That doesn’t matter. The billion is worthless if you can’t spend it. Spend 1$ from that wallet and your identity will be known.

you have no more tricks up your sleeves?

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a myth. Most people are rich because their parents were. Most of the rest is rich because they were/are lawyers or medical doctors. (For the super-rich, business and finance becomes more important. But for your average "middle-class rich", lawyers and doctors just dwarf their numbers. Business also has highly unequal outcomes). As to why this myth persists, I guess it goes well with American puritanical roots.…

Fidelity found that only 12 percent of millionaires inherited at least 10 percent of their net worth-- 88% are self-made. https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/on-retirement/articles/...

But the parent doesn't say that.

It says that most people are rich because their parents are rich. Not because they inherited their wealth. Stable home life, good schools, good network, good attitude and a financial backstop in the event of disaster (which allows a higher risk appetite) are all things that correlate positively with becoming rich. Your parents can give these without a penny of inherited wealth.

Re: 94k Bitcoin (1B USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

#350

I'm mostly puzzled by the fact that someone would let $1 billion sit in a wallet without earning interest...

3 months ago, BTC price was ~8k USD/BTC, and now sits at ~10.5 USD/BTC... So is it really sitting without earning interest? What other investment gives you ~180% interest rate year over year[0]? I wouldn't exactly calling this "$1 billion sitting without earning interest". [0] I know I'm oversimplifying here, there have been ups and downs in price, etc

The price will go straight back down below 8k if they tried to sell it. Nobody wants 94k bitcoin.
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