and already on its way back to one of its original wallets
https://blockchain.info/address/1HBa5ABXb5Yx1YcQsppqwKtaAGFP...
Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
201–210 of 474 posts
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It's well-known that you can at least secure your bitcoins as well as you can secure gold, if you use cold wallets.
The advantage, however, is you don't have to worry nearly as much about the security of a transaction (moving it from one place to another)
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#203Consider 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…
>between two entities usually consists of a heavily guarded, insured, physical shipment of cash or gold. Err, life isn't a james bond movie. For money transfer like this we use bank wires. We dont buy gold and ship it on gunships anymore.
Isn't this what happens at the Reserve in downtown Manhattan?
Everyone just keeps (a huge portion of) their gold in a single vault. A gold transfer involves carrying gold bars from one compartment of the vault to a second compartment in the same vault.
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#204Consider 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?
> or was it a thumb drive taken out of "cold storage" and handed off to someone else
A transaction like this is invisible to the bitcoin network. This would be equivalent to me handing you a 20 USD bill, no one but us (well, there is surveillance, but you get the point) knows what happened. Unlike handing over 20 USD, if I had you a USB drive with a wallet containing 20 BTC, you need to move that money from that wallet to another, because you can't trust it's my only copy. If I have another copy of the private key somewhere I can take that money back at any point by announcing a transaction before you do.
So exchanges like this are done via the bitcoin network by specifying a from address and a to address (simplified, other more detailed explanations are out there detailing the actual cryptographic tools and protocols) and an amount. So you provide me an address, I use my private key to encode a transaction from an address containing my 20 BTC to your address. Everyone knows about this, though they may not know who we are as the addresses are pseudonyms and the connection to our real identities may be virtually non-existent. Now, you control that 20 BTC and its spending, and my 20 BTC are gone from my address, I can't spend them again (legitimately at least). Supposing that address now has less than 20 BTC. If I try to spend 20 BTC again the network will consider it an invalid transaction since I can't spend BTC I don't have.
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The difference is Bitcoin can be secured much more cheaply than gold. You can't encrypt gold, setup "n-of-m" multisig transactions, etc. Unless you want to transport gold yourself you're always going to have to trust someone.
Hardware wallets should help immensely as well.
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Damn, how do you do quotes?
4 spaces in front of the content - the problem with it is that on larger text, it puts it in a scrolling div, which is not easy to read.
Yeah, it is really meant for code snippets. Asterisks for italic is generally preferred for quotes.
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#207Consider 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 what? i just paid $0 to transfer 1000 unicorns from Narnia to Neverneverland
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Your point stands, but most thefts occur on third party sites/applications where the address of the coins and their private key are stored in a central location. Owners of the bitcoin should transfer their coins to a private wallet.
I don't understand how so many sites can't use password hash generation to secure the private keys, or something to keep it more secure. The first link you posted was a site run by an 18 year old.
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#209Consider 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…
Or a $50 wire transfer. Used ALL the time.
But this was likely just moving money around to own accounts.
Re: Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer
#210Consider 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…
While that is true, Bitcoin is far from a bulletproof preserve of wealth. Gold has other uses if it isn't used as a currency anymore. Bitcoin on the other hand can be made completely useless if some critical flaw is found, or the wealth is too concentrated in a few users and the majority decides to switch to a newer crypto-currency.
I'm pretty sure that if we consider only the industrial uses of gold, and the available supply, it would have a low value. Probably even if we count jewelery as a non-currency use.
Almost all the value is because it's shiny, yellow, and traditional.
Gold asteroid mining isn't too implausible, either.