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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

#181

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…

So maybe I'm ignorant here, but did they do the transfer over the Internet, or was it a thumb drive taken out of "cold storage" and handed off to someone else. Do we even know? Don't you think there are vulnerabilities in the system for transferring Bitcoins just like there are vulnerabilities in the system for transferring other valuable things?

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

#182
post #111

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…

Call me crazy but if I am ever in a position to transfer $150M I'd probably also want a third party involved to make sure the transaction goes smoothly, like a bank. Like we do today. With wire transfers.

[deleted]

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

#183
post #157
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even close. Anytime you buy low and sell high you owe taxes on the difference. This applies to everything from antiques to livestock. It doesn't matter if the stuff is tangible or imaginary. You would owe taxes for mining World Of Warcraft coins if you sell them. You would owe taxes for picking up cans off of the street and recycling. How much you owe can change with how you earned the money, but if you earned mo…

What if you buy high and sell low. Can you write off the losses for tax purposes?

Yes, it's called a capital loss. A loss can be used to offset an equal amount of capital gain, or a small amount (up to $1500/year) of earned income.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Ten-Important-Facts-About-Capital-Gai...

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

#184

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…

No, the Bitcoin system has real value. Or rather, it would have real value, if Bitcoins themselves had real value.

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

#185
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A slight correction, he paid zero fee. The 0.5 bitcoin is change, that he got back. You can see the fee amount further down the page. If he had paid a fee, 0.0001 BTC, or $0.04 worth of BTC, would have been enough to ensure the transaction was included in the next block.

Isn't it quite possible that the 0.5 BTC is the actual transfer, and the other 194993 BTC is the change?

Yes, but that makes for a very uninteresting story

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

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

priority = sum(input_value_in_base_units * input_age) / size_in_bytes A recently received single bitcoin can have a transaction fee, while one that has aged may not.

Damn, how do you do quotes?

This is better for quotes (asterisk at start and end)

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

#187
post #111

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…

Call me crazy but if I am ever in a position to transfer $150M I'd probably also want a third party involved to make sure the transaction goes smoothly, like a bank. Like we do today. With wire transfers.

I may be ignorant here, but isn't the BTC system entirely based on 3rd party oversight?

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

#188
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often is there a direct transfer of this size? Fedwire moves about 2.7T/day and I believe it would have cost $0.26 to transfer this amount, assuming that its at the upper end of their sliding scale ($0.08 - $0.26/transfer).

Besides cost there is also risk- a transfer of this size in the light of day would raise a lot of questions- Where did this money come from? Was tax paid? And depending on the reason for the transaction regulators may interfere or freeze the funds.

Yes, because making sure someone isn't buying a nuke on the black market and is paying the taxes they owe is just terrible. Don't get me wrong, the regulatory framework for money transfers seems to suck, but I don't want to go from "shitty regulation" to "zero regulation", I want to go from "shitty regulation" to "smart regulation".

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

#189
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 n…

Read the FAQ.

https://www.casascius.com/faq.aspx

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

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind though, this transaction was nearly instantaneous. Bank Wire transfers take 3-4 days to complete (at least, as far as I know with normal-person quantities of money). Instant international money transfer is amazing!

No, that's ACH. SWIFT (or even FedWire) transfers happen within a few minutes.

My experience tell me otherwise with both of them. It can take from a few days to a couple weeks.
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