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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

#291

Post by sliverstorm »

smtddr wrote: post #272
Keyframe wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much for anonymity of Bitcoin.

It's like the AOL search-data leak. It's anonymous until you do a bit of research; then you can narrow it down to general area, maybe gender and perhaps eventually who exactly it is. Now, since one person can have multiple wallets and addresses... I'd recommend this person to never use this address again! ...because people(and authorities) will be watching and gathering clues on it from now on. I'm sure the folks at…

Well, you can't just never use a wallet with millions of dollars again.

The main way to get out of that wallet though is money laundering. Convert the BTC to some real asset, and slowly (and untraceably) funnel to a variety of places.

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

#292

Post by dewiz »

dmix wrote: post #167
Keyframe wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much for anonymity of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous by default, not anonymous. Anonymity is a choice. CoinJoin [1] and other trustless mixing software projects are aiming to make anonymity a push of a button. This is being implemented into DarkWallet [2] where mixing happens automatically in the background. [1] http://bitcoinmagazine.com/6630/ [2] http://www.indiegogo.com/at/darkwallet

out of curiosity, this information in clear in the wallet, could it be used to bring a person identity out in the open ?

e.g. if I ask you to pay in bitcoin and you do, can I put any link in your wallet, something like https://openid.somethng.com/id/92856293 ?

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

#293

Post by sliverstorm »

psbp wrote: post #56
aroch wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently people think its the Winklevoss' since they claimed to have bought ~1% of all BTC and the amount moved nicely coincides with about 1%

So if this currency does become ubiquitous the Winklevoss' will be the kings of the world? God dammit.

That certainly is kind of a dark prospect. Random people a mixture of varying degrees of foresight, money, and luck, suddenly becoming the richest people on the planet.

Gates built an empire. Yet the Winklevoss' will eclipse his wealth if BTC goes up just a few factors.

I don't begrudge people their gains, I'm just thinking about the seismic shift in power.

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

#294

Post by Titusak »

petercooper wrote: post #117
Titusak wrote: post #47

I still dont get how that kind of amount is cashed out. I mean, yeah, there is some brokers, but I dont think they have this kind of cash available...

It's not hugely different to if you had $150m in Albanian lek or Abkhazian apsar. You would find it ridiculously hard to convert into an alternative currency in one go and even if you did you'd probably be getting a bad deal (and could even devalue the currency in those two examples). Ultimately, there's always a price that you can convert ("cash out") anything at. For example, I'd be willing to pay $100 for 100 bitc…

I never saw it like this, but you are right. It's just another currency exchange.

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

#295

Post by socillion »

iSnow wrote: post #285
socillion wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>someone should make an index of how many Bitcoin threads hit the front page of HN per day Something like that: http://influxdb.org/blog/visualizing_bitcoin_post_frequency_... ?

Awesome! Thank you, I was hoping someone else would have had the same idea.

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

#296

Post by dmix »

Karunamon wrote: post #269
dllthomas wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I have every expectation of mixing falling afoul of AML laws, if not presently then soon.

The legislators can make whatever they want illegal, but that doesn't make it necessarily enforceable. Thing about mixing is, since any person (or autonomous process) can generate wallets and send BTC to those on the fly, how do you prove that you used a tumbling service and not that you gave coins to a guy who gave coins to a guy who split them up into separate wallets who each gave coins to a guy, etc etc etc. As B…

High adversarial costs + increased uncertainty = ineffective regulation.

But it's not like that won't stop them from trying. Probably via a bunch of high-profile "busts" to keep the law enforcement agencies financed.

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

#297

Post by logfromblammo »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #286
logfromblammo wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I had no idea that complying with the tax laws would be so much more difficult than just ignoring them and concealing your Bitcoin activities from anyone beholden to the authorities. If there is anyone in Congress with even a quarter of a brain, they might want to take a look at how to keep Bitcoin users in the system. Otherwise, as more people read that guide, say "WTF?!", and decide to pay it all as much heed…

Hint: Complying with tax laws is much more difficult than just ignoring them and concealing your activities from anyone beholden to the authorities without bitcoin too. That's not unique to bitcoin, I'm surprised you were surprised. Ask any small business owner around tax time whether filing your taxes is more 'difficult' than simply... not filing your taxes. At least unless-until you get caught and prosecuted, then…

Your hint is simply not true.

Traditional banking rules require attachment of identities to accounts, and automatically trigger reporting to the tax authority for any significant movement of cash. Any account can be frozen and seized with an official-looking piece of paper. The system has tax compliance built into it.

Bitcoin has no such requirements. It is actually possible to be secretly, anonymously wealthy. Your accounts cannot be seized or frozen unless you give up your private keys.

It is true that people evade taxes in other ways. These often involve foreign accounts in countries that do not strictly comply with tax-reporting demands. Assuming the tax authority cares, it would also have to present evidence, which is somewhat harder to get out of the Bitcoin system.

And it is also true that for most people with dollar income, taxes are as simple as filing 1040EZ. There is no need to calculate basis or holding period or do a million lookups of tax code minutiae. If you make $50000 a year, compliance is easy and the risk is low. If you buy something with 10BTC, you have to hire an accountant to strictly comply with the law.

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

#298

Post by skorgu »

crazydoggers wrote: post #263
mortehu wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you seem to think that selling them all at once is the only way to sell them?

Exactly this! What the heck would you do with $150 million in cash... stick it in a $250,000 FDIC insured bank? Most people with this level of wealth diversify their holdings, which makes the total amount less liquid, but much more secure, as well as providing protection from inflation or returns on investments. Real wealth often does not have perfect liquidity, and I would argue in these amounts, almost never does.…

A redundant array of insured deposits of course.

I'm actually serious, there's a service called CDARS [0] that balances a large number of individual CD accounts of varying expiration times and maintains the 250k per individual per institution invariant. It acts like as single (albeit illiquid) bank account.

[0] http://www.cdars.com/

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

#299

Post by Avalaxy »

dguaraglia wrote: post #232
jganetsk wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Utterly incorrect. They did not transfer a single dollar. For them to turn those Bitcoins into dollars, they will have to pay more than $0.00. Possibly A LOT more. They may not even be able to turn those bitcoins into dollars for a while, and in all likelihood it will not be $150 million dollars.

This is the correct answer. People rave about how "cheap" it is to transfer bitcoin. What about actually buying anything with that 'money'? Sure, you might be able to buy some crap on the internet with bitcoin, but it won't put food in your table anytime soon without you having to pay a good % in fees to convert it to real currency.

Actually you can here in the Netherlands. We have a website called thuisbezorgd.nl that allows you to order food from thousands of shops through the country with Bitcoins, and have the food delivered at your house.

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

#300

Post by hnha »

termain wrote: post #124
mariusz79 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Size of the current bitcoin economy is "just" $8bln. While it sound like a lot of money, comparing to the rest of the economy it does not even qualify as a pocket change.

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

one that could turn into a 8 million thing in a day when the speculators stumble and the bubble bursts.
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