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Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

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Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

#171

Post by dragontamer »

IgorPartola wrote: post #165
sp332 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pseudonymous, because if they make a transfer later we'll still know it's the same people.

Can't you just generate a new address for every transaction you conduct and remain anonymous?

How the heck are you going to put new BTCs into this new address?

Unless you have some anonymous way of depositing BTCs into random addresses, all transfers into and out of that address will be stored into the BTC Blockchain _for life_.

No, seriously. Forever, for the rest of Bitcoin's history, there will be a record that two addresses transferred BTC between each other.

This will be timestamped, cryptographically signed, and archived by the BTC Network. That is... what Bitcoin is after all. It is the ultimate ledger.

Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

#172

Post by socillion »

fragsworth wrote: post #141
JackFr wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/venezuela-receives-... http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/01/16/germany...

Not only is gold shipped frequently, it's also stolen frequently: http://rt.com/news/gold-shipment-stolen-france-304/ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-usa-miami-gold-...

Not only is Bitcoin sent frequently, it's also stolen frequently:

http://rt.com/news/bitcoin-hacking-stolen-million-417/

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/250-000-worth-bitcoins-sto...

http://www.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/czech-bitcoi...

edit: unrelated, someone should make an index of how many Bitcoin threads hit the front page of HN per day.

Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

#174

Post by aortega »

muzzamike wrote: post #125
derefr wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only if the two entities can both interact with the global banking infrastructure (i.e. they hold money in reserve currencies, their accounts aren't frozen, etc.) If someone in Argentina wanted to buy something from anywhere else in the world in 2000, for example, they'd basically have to trade natural resources or gold for access to foreign currency, and then spend that.

In 2000...

2013 Argentinian here. To buy a house right now you usually have to pay dollars cash because nobody accepts a currency that devaluates 25% per year.

The political class here is crazy corrupt and rich like in every third world country, and they are known for using piles of 500 euros bills to stay out of the bank system because euros have more wealth density than dollars.

Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

#175

Post by localhorse »

throwaway1979 wrote: post #150
termain wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's definitely worked well enough to create an 8 billion dollar economy?

I was a naysayer until recently. After the senate hearing, I ate crow. Too late to profit at this point though :(

I'm not sure that's true.

Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

#176

Post by localhorse »

throwaway1979 wrote: post #150
termain wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's definitely worked well enough to create an 8 billion dollar economy?

I was a naysayer until recently. After the senate hearing, I ate crow. Too late to profit at this point though :(

I'm not sure that's true.

Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

#177

Post by dragontamer »

Zr40 wrote: post #132
sp332 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pseudonymous, because if they make a transfer later we'll still know it's the same people.

You can't know that for sure. I could pay you 2 BTC by giving the private key to a wallet holding 2 BTC. You could even return change in the same way. The physical Bitcoins (like those by Casascius) work exactly like this: physical coins containing a private key hidden behind a seal.

You're so open to scammers that it isn't even funny.

Lets say I give you a "physical" BTC worth 1 million BTC. Is there any way for me to prove to you that I have erased the private key to this BTC address?

No, there isn't. Anyone who is caught using physical BTC coins is a sucker who doesn't understand the system. They can be very easily scammed by the very man who created the "physical BTC coin". After all, all I need to do is keep a copy of the private address, and transfer the money sometime after I've "sold" you the BTC.

Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

#179

Post by toozap »

res0nat0r wrote: post #152
fragsworth wrote: post #64

Consider this: They paid $0.00 for the transfer of $150 million dollars. A direct (i.e. not based on third party credit, regulations, etc.) transfer of wealth of this magnitude between two entities usually consists of a heavily guarded, insured, physical shipment of cash or gold. Depending how safely you want to make the transfer, and how far the entities are on the globe, it can cost hundreds of thousands to million…

Unfortunately for me right now bitcoin has zero value. Until I can use the millions in coins to pay off my house, buy a car easily, pay my taxes and go out to eat with them, or hassle free convert them to cash in my bank, it is still funny money.

I think you might be missing the point. Bitcoin right now operates more like gold. You can't pay off your house, buy a car, pay your taxes or go out to eat with gold. However, there is a healthy market for exchanging gold for currency. You wouldn't call gold funny money. I think it would be more appropriate to compare bitcoin to gold right now. I have no idea how healthy the market is for exchanging bitcoin for other currency, though.
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