Bitcoin Forum

Do we know who owns certain richlist addresses that are not related to an exchange? is there anyway we could find out?

This particular one would be interesting to know. also has gradual inflow
https://glasschain.org/btc/address/1LdRcdxfbSnmCYYNdeYpUnztiYzVfBEQeC

another rich one is from the bitfinex hack: https://glasschain.org/btc/address/bc1qazcm763858nkj2dj986etajv6wquslv8uxwczt
Are those coins still in control of the hacker?

one of the reasons many people are trooping into crypto-currency is because it's decentralized, and protects ones privacy I think it would go against that value revealing the identity of those rich lost holders except the owners do it by themselves, regardless we really don't have any need to find out who they are if they legitimately got the funds there into their wallet in the first place.

This is the downside to crypto.  People wanting to find out who has big money to either beg them for some, or try to steal it.  I'm not accusing you of this, but it does seem to be a common motivation.  I was once told that the only time to look at someone else's plate is to make sure they have enough to eat.  So for me personally, I'd rather see people wanting to identify longtime active addresses that are short on funds to try and help them out instead of looking at the richlist to see if they can identify anyone to covet their attention or envy their wealth.

Not trying to derail the thread, as you have legitimate questions that someone on this forum could certainly answer.  Just wanted to throw a nugget of wisdom out there.

I totally understand your view but there is another side to it like if I want to verify someones claims. Like micro strategy or elon musk or any other big media hedge funds.
It is fair game to me.

Before reading the replies to the OP my first thought was, Why do we need to know?
Nobody goes around posting what they own here on the forum and I dont know
anyone who has told me what they have in FIAT either.

There is no need to verify what any public listed company owns because being
publically listed they have a duty to publically notify their purchases.

I doubt too someone is disclosing his own wallet(s) but in case of Bitfinex, it would be nice to know who has control. 90k+ coins is a lot...like if they are "lost", seized or still in control of a criminal, would be interesting.
but you are right, we don't NEED to know but I asked because I want to know. A free choice

I'm not saying it's not fair game.  Surely these individuals are wealthy enough to obfuscate their coins if they so chose to.  I guess you even presented a good use case, to verify one's claims.  For that I would say to specifically state which claims you are trying to verify and the community would surely help you.  Wanting to out the richest BTC holders without any stated reason just sounds like you're looking for a list of people to spam with some BS project that they certainly have no interest in (not accusing you of doing this).

I guess my point isn't about it being fair game or not.  It's fair game to fart going up an escalator, but the people behind you might not appreciate it much and others would surely warn you that the behavior is not appropriate, even if it is "fair game" to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bON00kB4X4c <---See what I mean?

Maybe spend months and years tracking thejr activity until they make a mistake.

Are these different from the seized BTC by the US Justice Department from the apprehended couple recently? There are plenty of discussions in this forum weeks ago. A lot of news articles also came out.

Even if Micro strategy or Elon musk disclosing their address to media, it's not 100% true since there's no proof and no one can verify how reliable with his claim. The only way to prove someone with a particular address they mentioned and not related with exchanges is sign message and he was the only one can verify that, not you or me. They can wrote I'm Micro strategy/Elon musk now is mm/dd/yyyy and this is my address bc1... then let anyone verify with his signatures.

The question is: Do they want to sign message if unknown user ask him on social media? 99,99% not, I believe they even doesn't understand how to sign message is.

As for the alleged Bitfinex hacker, they have been arrested recently:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-alleged-conspiracy-launder-45-billion-stolen-cryptocurrency

So maybe we can see some movement if they are going to tell it to the authorities.

However, there are a lot of addresses that we really don't know who own and there's no way that someone will admit that they own it.

If someone is disclosing his/her holdings then it is a fair game. We should not get into someone's finance, it is there privacy. Bitcoin is being used by majority of the people for this purpose. There are banks that don't reveal our identity, but the banking system does know about us. For this reason many used to hold their untaxed money on such banks. Now people are used with cryptocurrencies, and they weren't in a situation to reveal their identity.

It is possible to watch the Bitcoin address holding the largest holding of bitcoins. Further what's the need of differentiating if from the exchange wallet and know the individual identity.

why find out about people's finances, after we know what we are doing?
Finance is a sensitive subject for me , and I personally will not find out people 's wealth because I personally also do not want my finances to be disturbed by people .



I think it's the same because that's the couple who was arrested recently and many articles have been published

Beyond millionaires who already had large wealth unassociated with Bitcoin, you're unlikely to find many people who are flaunting their wealth. People with money who worked hard for it generally have the sense not to advertise it, because wealth breeds jealousy and it will make them a target for all sorts of different people. Most of the biggest wallets are likely to belong to exchanges or other large crypto related sites, so there is not much use trying to find all the largest wallets if you want to connect them with particular individuals. Any wallets connected with criminal activity are often worthless because to convert it back to fiat currency often exposes the people behind it.

The first transaction at that address took place in mid-2014, and the amount was +53880.05311692 BTC, and since then there have been some dust transactions at that address that have not significantly affected the final amount. Interestingly, the transaction came from the address 1GLEtzJ1H2zoGrUA4RMbRJam5UJSdrk6T2 (https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1GLEtzJ1H2zoGrUA4RMbRJam5UJSdrk6T2) whose total balance was 107761.09521692 BTC, and the first transaction at that address is dated January 1, 2012.

I didn't find any other link to that address other than that it participated in one coin distribution when the owner decided to earn something extra in a safe way.

Someone has linked 53880 BTC for the next ***** distribution (https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/6fcohc/someone_has_linked_53880_btc_for_the_next/)

Unless somebody behaves in a very reckless way, accidentally revealing one's identity, or there's a major hack of a database with KYC documents, or someone publicly claims an address as theirs, there's no way of knowing the identity or even whether it's an individual or a company. Also, I think it hardly matters because there's enough decentralization to ensure that the price is not under anyone's control, even if we assume that the addresses on the list belong to individuals, not companies. The distribution of money is very unequal, sure, but it's not centralized.

the bitfinex heist coins are in the possession of he authorities

Yes, through them voluntarily admitting that they own it and proving it through signing with a message that it's proof that they hold the funds.

But are they going to that for a show? Not really, they don't even care that they should be found out as the owner of it, and for sure that they better keep it private than publicly known that they hold such funds. It's for their protection and more of privacy.

Not everyone though, a business related person, influencer, or someone who wants an attention will do it. e.g. CSW, he really care, he's more with attentions than being secured, but unfortunately, he will not.

Also an example for microstrategy and saylor, who wants to influence others business or a person to getting involved on bitcoin.

Even if you do know the owner of such wallet address then what would you do next? Its true that one of the things or factors on why crypto is been loved that much because of its characteristics

which is decentralized and anonymous.We are seeing lots of wallets which are dormant but we dont know if those are totally lost in void or still intact into its owners which do owns lots of
coins which we couldnt really tell in the first place.

Anonymity wouldnt fit out on crypto space if you could easily trace up on whose the owner of those coins or wallets.