Bitcoin Forum

I am a little puzzled by this. Maybe someone has an idea.

A user was seeking to buy old Ethereum addresses that have had more than +1000 transactions.
He was even willing to pay upfront before receiving the private keys, so long as the other trading partner is trustworthy.

Why would someone go to such length?
Is there value in our old addresses that we don't know about? Lol.

I think they are doing it for some airdrops?
There are some projects who have qualifications on some addresses to be able to get some airdrops.
I'm not sure if it is worth it to buy such old Ethereum wallets not unless it is cheap.
I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

This is related to the airdrops, and I have also seen some people buying old ethereum wallet in bulk with more transactions than they had in the past.
Although I am not exactly sure what the airdrop is, I do know that they still buy a lot of it. Of course, the price is very cheap because it is an empty and almost unused item.
Cryptocurrency industry is magical, there are ways we can make money that other people can't think of.

Is there a chance that the person who is buying such an address is trying to fool some upcoming user into showing that they control a certain "old" address and hence attempt to gain the trust of the person in front?

This used to be the case with most of the accounts being sold in this forum, I am trying to project a similarity.

Airdrops, like @GreatArkansas said, could be a reason but I dont see the ROI happening from those airdropped coins vs the amount spent to buy that address. The above scamming methods seems a better investment, logically. After all, which airdrop made its receivers a millionaire? None.

If what I suspect is true, then it is a scam not magic. I would suggest the OP to not deal in such things unless they are sure of the buyer's motives.

Some people do buy things like an old address that contains transactions, a GitHub account, and an aged active Twitter account to qualify for an airdrop. I never tried it out since I don't see any of it is worth it(the airdropped amount is just so minuscule), even though I do have those mentioned things.

But I think it's only a matter of information, if some people have valuable airdrop information that few people know it, they surely will buy any requirement for the airdrop, even if they only profit a small margin or just simply bet the token/coin will profitable.

The answer is very clear, they want to buy it to qualify for an airdrop program, do you remember Uniswap Airdrop? Or recently happened like Optimism (OP) airdrop event. The more transactions you have made, the less likely you are to never make a transaction on the platform that is a requirement for the airdrop event.

FYI, usually they are not only looking for Ethereum addresses with lots of transactions, but they are also usually looking for old Github and Twitter accounts. My advice, if you have something they want to look for, it's better you don't sell it because we don't know what future events will be, who knows you will get a lot of money from there later, LOL.

I didn’t know airdrop requires huge number of transactions now with regards to the address that they are going to provide, this is quiet suspicious honestly since we don’t really know the exact reason of those buyer. With regards to the safety of the seller, maybe if the wallet used in fraud and the seller exposed his real identity before using that address, most probably he will be the one to suffer the consequences if the authority finds him. The seller can still have that key and monitor the wallet, so its not safe as well for the buyer which makes no sense on buying a wallet.

Very highly likely to gain airdrops. There are some airdrops that are given to addresses that are old and was active during certain period of time. The buyer probably hopes that the seller hasn't redeems/claimed those rewards. If the value of the rewards is more than what he is paying for the address, he doesn't lose anything. Just some quick bucks for him. I don't see any other reason. I am sure he wouldn't use it to store his coins since the original owner will also have access to the wallet.

For sure the seller would really be still peeking with those address that had been sold and trying out to see if there's some funds that been credited or transferred to it which means that he could still make money but of course its already stealing.I dont know on what consideration the buyer do able to tolerate such risk as long it do goes in into the criteria on having 1000+ transactions inside it.
Im bit aware of those wants of these addresses. @OP, do you have idea on how much for a single address cost? (I do have some of these addresses which had been long time not been used but does have
those no. transactions had been mentioned.) hehe.

My nearest presumption will really be speaking about airdrops just like on what been said above.There might be already some qualifications for that one? Possibly.

Yes I can confirm it they are doing this for airdrops I once stumble a project a few years where they only accept participants with numbers of transactions and number of years but some projects are also using wallets to scam people r hacking activities so the authorities will be diverted on who are the real owners of the wallet, so it's very risky to sell wallet it's like selling your identity too.

people will go to this extent for something they thought they can gain from it. these days, i don't think airdrops are worth spending your time, but yeah, people are willing to join for some dusts. but i don't think it is safe to sell your old eth wallet, you may have transactions and addresses that may be compromised. we don't know the motive of the people who are holding airdrops why they want old addresses. they may have reasons but better secure your old addresses by not selling one.

I don't think it is for the purpose of airdrops. This looks like a way to fool the users. I've got similar experience with one of the P2P cryptocurrency trading platform. I got a buying order, and he stated he isn't willing to buy and just to know some information he have started the trade. It isn't possible to have conversation without a trade. He requested is there anyone who have got an account that have made 1000+, 5000+, 10k+ trades. Based on this I can provide payment just for providing trustworthy feedbacks. I started to brief him, just do the trade with an user and he'll give you trustworthy feedback depending on the transaction made. He isn't ready to accept, but looking for a way to trap others with fake trustworthy feedbacks. Same is here planned with the increased number of transactions.

I also don't know why they're asking for it but this thread is helpful and made me understand that it's just for the airdrops. Maybe this could also belong to the Service Discussion (Altcoins) section since it's about a used and empty old Ethereum wallet.

That's the risk if you're the buyer and not really worth it unless you do trust the seller.

It is what I suspect as well.  If you gain access to addresses that were used before in a ton of transactions, I suspect the buyer could be a bad actor using the address to provide false proof of past ownership.  Take my profile address for example.  Maybe years from now I will have thousands of transactions on it.  But if years from now I will not be using it anymore, someone could want to buy my private key to provide false proof that they are the 'old, real owner' of PrivacyG or PrivacyG themselves.  There are a lot of things to lie about once you have ownership of the address.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

Yes its not safe. Of course whatever the seller said baout the copy, possibly that he still have some access to that wallet private key no matter what he denied it.

So buying it still not worth it cause you might be able to get future airdrops with that wallet but the previous owner could still open it and get that instead of you.

I saw that thread too.

I think that user has demand to do his business that need to prove that he or his team is not a newbie in cryptocurrency. Old wallet, with many past transactions. I don't feel good intention to buy and use these wallets.

Probably to scam or to join bounties? I don't know bounties have too strict criteria to join like this.

How much money do they give for such addresses?
I wouldn't be interested in selling my old wallet for a couple of hundred dollars.
It could be a scam or this wallet will be used in a scam and then you will have problems because you sent money from this wallet to centralized services with KYC.

I remember back then when there was a user who is looking to buy old bitcoin addresses to claim CLAMS.

Anyhow, maybe the same here, could be airdrops as mentioned by others and to claim that, you need to have an old ETH address. So it's a win-win for those who are going to sell, those not used old addresses, and then the buyer will used it to claim airdrops but for sure he will be paying less money.

i wanted to create a thread of the same topic and since i searched and saw this thread, i guess it wouldn't be so bad to just update this and ask something else.

recently there have been threads buying old eth wallets too.
if this is all about airdrop which the project only send to old eth wallets, how do we know which project is this?
maybe we will not missed this airdrop this time. anyone knew something?

I often see this in crypto groups on social media. the answer is that they are targeting the airdrop that can be obtained from the old wallet. However, until now I have not studied what kind of airdrop they want to claim. some airdrops I know of require some transactions on site, like on some DEXs, but sometimes they even want to buy the wallet even if they don't know what transactions were made. most likely the goal is an airdrop.

Yes, majority of them are collecting those old addresses and will try to sweep if there are remaining balances from tokens that they can dump on exchanges and also the potential airdrops that old addresses are eligible. It doesn't make sense right when they want to do it but they might find some jackpot tokens or airdrops that haven't been swept by the owner. But regarding this matter, instead of selling those old addresses, just keep it and never let someone know your private keys even they're buying it and most of them are already old and useless.

Ohh , so that is the same reason why there are other member tries to buy Old Ethereum Addresses I
thought this is about a requirements or something from airdrops but is this I think what related post and that extracting the
remaining balance specially now that we are near closing to halving that many can tell there are possible pumping from old
 projects and a chance to make money from those addresses.

I'd forego the benefit of the doubt, it's most likely going to be used for a scam. They're most likely going to use past transactions as a method to showcase how "trustworthy" they are or something along those lines. There might be some non-damaging ones like the others have said with airdrops and whatnot, but eh, I'd much rather err than give someone access to capabilities to scam others. Seeing as there's a lot of people who has recently seen stuff like this, there might just be an event/airdrop that's going to happen somewhere with a new unknown project though.

Airdrop nowadays is not the same before which you will just to send your address then you will receive free token. Most of the project is doing a retroactive airdrop which means you really don’t know when or if they will really do an airdrop. Most of the airdrop requires participation to the project development like using the DEX and running a node for a their test net.

Along with this requirements, some airdrop requires an old address with past activities to avoid airdrop abuser that create multiple account to claim multiple airdrop. You can follow those startup project especially L1 and L2 project that is just doing test net. But airdrop nowadays is guaranteed and requires spending.

That was my first thought too

if so, scammers are smart and are really putting not only effort but money as well it’s quite surprising how far these scammers can go just to gain profit from deceiving people


on the other hand, this also makes sense

both situations are very plausible however the 2nd situation might be used to justify real scammers

If it's not for scams then I would say just to hide their personal identity and just want to route the funds acquired from scam/hack via this address so it may create more confusion when someone tries to trace the transaction and even if they succeed they end up picking the wrong individuals. On the other hand why someone has to sell an address along with private keys, even if the buyer has no intention to use for bad the seller can just import the wallet at any time and get access to the funds.

Anything that we can think of like those that have been mentioned are possible. And another possibility is if they're going to use it for some transactions that are going to be involved with illegal transactions. Although the chance is low but what if that's what they want to do and if you're able to mention that address to some platforms like on an internet forum then the authorities will have leads and it's going to be you that have mentioned it elsewhere. Anyway, that's little chance and still, we go back to what we've said about sweeping balances of tokens, coins and airdrops.

Collectors are looking for outdated Ethereum addresses like lost jewels. The attraction is in the possibility of unclaimed tokens and airdrops remaining in such wallets. While it may be illogical to part with such addresses, protecting your private keys is critical. It's a digital-age version of "one person's trash is another's treasure," with the value being forgotten or neglected goods. So, rather than selling the old addresses, perhaps keeping them will prove more beneficial in the long term. After all, in the ever-changing crypto world, you never know when an old address can bring unexpected profits.

Such addresses are valuable for those who are engaged in retroairdrops. And it is the number of transactions in the Ethereum network, as well as the date of the first interaction in this network, that acts as a criterion that easily identifies sibiles from real participants.

Yes I am also thinking the same.m because there is no other profits for empty wallet. New and old address without fund are same and the only difference is old wallets are some times eligible for big projects airdrops. TIA project launched few week ago and airdropped tokens to old Ethereum user who did old transaction. I think empty wallet buyer are collecting old wallets with the thinking that any wallet might gives him big profit in the future.

This is the most tenable reason for me on that. No one buys an old or abandoned stuff if they don't believe they would hit a goldmine in it. We know people buy old social media accounts and use them to promote new projects to make them look old in the business and end up deceiving unsuspecting public. How those buying old ETH addresses will actualize such a nefarious scheme that expectedly will dovetail into a scam is what I would love to find out.

Will a new NFT be born whose concept requires users to use an old and empty ethereum address ;D ;D ;D but for me this just feels like ordering a unique and rare cell phone number where the orderer provides a special category, if any and according to the specifications, he will buy it at a reasonable price.

Btw, Nice joke with a riddle for you. but interesting, I like it.

And that's why I highly suggest to just keep those old wallets whether they've got with funds or airdrops awaited to be claimed. The thing here is you are keeping the wallet of your own and you're keeping your private key. It's true that it is a critical thing and don't regret when you see someone trying to buy all of those old addresses and you think that penny is worth while.
Just be contented with it and you do find the airdrops that you might find because you'll have no idea where those airdrops are gonna be worth it or not.

Obviously, these buyers are newbies who have already heard about retro airdrops, but are not yet familiar with security. And accordingly, they do not understand that the former owner can withdraw the contents of the wallet at any time using a private key.

That's true as the former owner can easily access the wallet due to the possession of the private key and only a newbie that is center and ignorant of the basic knowledge of crypto knowledge would fail to understand this. The worst part about this is that a private key to a wallet isn't like your normal social media account security or even bank app security where one can easily change the password or even the reset password if forgotten or lost.

might obviously be for airdrop purpose, any normal human wouldn't buy an address where private key already exposed, maybe they are interested in the history of transactions from that wallet and probably have found some airdrop that have such eligiblity therefore they are seeking such address.
because after all, even if you do sell your address, you will still see the private key, therefore its security risk for holding any asset, but if its for airdrop claiming they'd just claim and then dump the address immediately.

probably they've already considered security but they are so eager to get eligible which might have something to do with address history transactions and just don't care thinking they'd could move the money in the first seconds that most likely be the scenario in my honest opinion.

I never knew about this before. I was probably thinking that it for loan just like the way bank will ask for statement of account for six months or 1year to check the eligibility or  frequent transaction made on a particular account if they want to offer or profuse loan to a customer. But seeing people's comment I see that it's the porpose of airdrops. I never knew airdrop could require etherium address with frequent transaction. Although o haven't participated in any though.

i also have this feeling. i tried showing what my old wallet is worth, it got no use for me. he only offered $100 but was hesitant to do it because this is gotta be too good to be true. the wallet is empty and only few transactions i did there on some dex that is already dead.

if he is going to use it for scamming, it will surely be linked to me. but at the same time, i'm also curious if he can claim an airdrop, in that case, i would like to know which airdrop. must be more than $100. :)

May be there could be airdrops that you are eligible of but are unaware. Try putting your address on earnifi [1] and earndrop [2] and see if you are eligible for anything.

If you don't see anything, then I'd be puzzled myself as well.

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[1] https://earni.fi/

[2] https://earndrop.io

Of course the main reason for buying an old eth address is to consider all the risks involved, and they have also considered that after they join the airdrop after the airdrop distribution they quickly move it.

But to be honest, even though there is a potential airdrop, the condition is that you have to have an old eth address to be able to pass the main conditions. I don't dare and don't want to force myself to buy it because the risk is very big and usually if you force yourself too much you end up with fraud, not the slightest benefit. Moments like this have launched their fraudulent activities.

There is also another possibility that wallet buyer want to qualify for some new big project private sell..Their eligibility criteria including the wallet which has six months or older transaction..If empty wallet buyer know coding then he can use old wallets for scamming purpose also as he add bot for automatic transactions..By the way these all are just speculation and the buyer can tells the real reason of buying wallets.

Well whatever  their plan and intention is  still its quite unusual because they can easily create
their own wallet why look for old one that already exist and have been used from other transactions?anyway I am
not interested in selling one of mine even If i have not using them for long now because I want to preserve their
 sentimental value that once I have hunt bounty also  ;D

Exactly my thoughts here I think some of the old wallet buyers might have some ulterior motive behind the buying move probably another method of scam has been devised using old wallet, in tweeter several messages was sent to me that I had won huge amount of Ethereum, however to claim my coins I should send some gas transaction fee with Ethereum, I imagine a sender of the ETH couldn't pay for the transactions fee thus there tendency of scamming, I think another method of scamming with old wallet is being conceived of course with time I believe we shall see the true picture of what those old wallet buyers use or meant for either positive or negative.

I also saw that thread someone wants to buy an old ETH wallet. If they wanted to scam, they could just use the new wallet. I don't see any difference in what they are going to do. If it's for airdrop, then this user must have a piece of inside information about this airdrop and we are not aware of it.

Regardless of what they would do to the old wallet address of yours. How much would it take for you to sell your old wallet address?

The answer to your question is more than obvious, since the new wallet cannot claim retro airdrop, buyers are trying in this way to eligebet for airdrop in the future. And it is transactions on the Ethereum network, as a rule, that will act as one of the conditions for receiving airdrop, since sibyls avoid interactions on this network due to high commissions.

Perhaps the buyer is trying to accumulate such addresses for participants in any airdrop or giveaway that has that kind of activity. OP should explore the internet to figure out what that dude is trying to do, as OP can miss a chance to grab a bigger profit than selling the account. If you think that this will be a hassle for you, then you can consider thinking about selling that account if someone really wants to buy it. I have an Old ETH wallet and i am thinking about doing some research about what is happening in here.

I also think it's so somewhere along the lines, but don't think it has to do with high fees of ethereum or that sybils don't have resources to make transactions, rather I feel that projects who gonna do retro airdrop will outright disqualify wallets which are new for reason that it might have been created for farming airdrop, so sybils are trying to avoid that and are looking for older wallets.