The Perils of Hoarding

[cypherdoc]

Please don't do this with your Bitcoin  :

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-carson-city-gold-20120917,0,5763811.story

[1714192484]

1714192484

[1714192484]

1714192484

[1714192484]

1714192484

[1714192484]

1714192484

[1714192484]

1714192484

[1714192484]

1714192484

[kokojie]

Sounds like he was doing pretty good financially, he became a 7 millionaire by just regularly buying gold coins/bars throughout his life on a regular income. He just refused to use the money to improve his life style. I imagine if someone had done the same thing with bitcoin, buying bitcoins regularly with their disposable income, he would also be pretty well off financially, given the price history of the past 3 years.

[tvbcof]

Please don't do this with your Bitcoin  :

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-carson-city-gold-20120917,0,5763811.story

Cool story.

I'm guessing that a healthy percentage of Bitcoin will go down with the owner of the secret key(s) never again to surface.  If/when almost everyone is at least aware of Bitcoin, a bit more effort might be put toward finding the key(s) and/or recognizing them when they are found, but probably nowhere near as much as with PM's.

[kiba]

The only way to become a rich bitcoiner is to horde bitcoin with extreme paranoia.

[paulie_w]

hoarder here. agree with other hoarders.

[LoweryCBS]

You know what would be a sickening thing? How about if the first paragraph read like this instead:

"Authorities in Somewhere City recently made an odd discovery in the home of a local recluse whose body was found in his residence. Satoshi Nakamoto Jr. had left only $200 in his bank account. But stored in a file called wallet.dat on his hard drive were 7,000,000 'bitcoins'.

"Since no one could figure out what a 'bitcoin' was, officials wiped and reformatted the drive - selling the pc for scrap"

[kokojie]

well with 7M bitcions or even $7M bitcoins, I'm pretty sure the guy would have an off site backup somewhere.

[jimbobway]

From some hoarding site:

"There appears to be a strong genetic component to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of the hoarding type. Modeling and conditioning may also play a role in the development of this disorder. OCD usually involves over-activity and/or under-activity of brain regions that underpin the observed behaviors. Hoarding worries and behaviors can begin in childhood, even as young as age five."

[evoorhees]

From some hoarding site:

"There appears to be a strong genetic component to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of the hoarding type. Modeling and conditioning may also play a role in the development of this disorder. OCD usually involves over-activity and/or under-activity of brain regions that underpin the observed behaviors. Hoarding worries and behaviors can begin in childhood, even as young as age five."

That photo is 'shopped. You can't actually swim in gold coins.

[Stephen Gornick]

Please don't do this with your Bitcoin

Paper bitcoins left in a safe will be conveyed upon your passing, but what about those in an encrypted wallet??

M of N escrow will provide more options.  The appointed executor of a will is given one key and family members are each given a copy of the other key (or told the secure location where it is stored).

This is one of those things though that nobody thinks will happen to them, but over time it will happen somewhere.

[julz]

Please don't do this with your Bitcoin

Paper bitcoins left in a safe will be conveyed upon your passing, but what about those in an encrypted wallet??

M of N escrow will provide more options.  The appointed executor of a will is given one key and family members are each given a copy of the other key (or told the secure location where it is stored).

This is one of those things though that nobody thinks will happen to them, but over time it will happen somewhere.

Yeah.. I'm guilty of storing quite a few coins in my head - with no other copy. 
I'll certainly revisit that when the multikey stuff is more mature and I have a chance to investigate it fully.

Aside from death - there's the risk of loss due to minor brain damage/ memory loss, so I don't feel really comfortable with keeping too big a stash as a brainwallet.

[tvbcof]

From some hoarding site:

"There appears to be a strong genetic component to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of the hoarding type. Modeling and conditioning may also play a role in the development of this disorder. OCD usually involves over-activity and/or under-activity of brain regions that underpin the observed behaviors. Hoarding worries and behaviors can begin in childhood, even as young as age five."

That seems to align with my observations (even of myself to some extent.)  It makes a lot of sense (for humans) to hoard in some environments, and probably has for a long enough time that certain genetic sequences code for the behavior.  And many neurological/psychological maladies stem from an over-expression of 'normal' behaviors.

Relatedly (generally...not in the context of the OP) I suspect that manic/depressive behaviors actually have some advantage in certain environments.  Namely in ones where there are long winters with not much to do and it is counterproductive to burn energy.

I would not be surprised if both of the aforementioned abnormalities were more prevalent in populations from certain environments.  But I've not really studied it and it is also quite possible that there is enough mobility in genes due to migrations and what-not that there is no statistical relevance.  Or that my hypotheses are simply wrong.

[Stephen Gornick]

Yeah.. I'm guilty of storing quite a few coins in my head - with no other copy. 

A timely thread:


Dead Man's Switch?
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=110353.0

[finkleshnorts]

I used to want to spend bitcoins for goods and services to support the currency, due to idealism, but for now I'd rather just use dollars again. I put my savings in bitcoin. I hoard. I have a large (for me) offline/kind-of-brain- wallet that I don't plan on touching. I keep about 15 BTC online in case I do want to buy something. I would like to have all of my money in bitcoin, but it's convenient to keep a revolving door on my bank account for paychecks/bills. So when I can be paid in bitcoins and pay my bills in bitcoins, I'll start actually using bitcoins.

[Rodyland]

That photo is 'shopped. You can't actually swim in gold coins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMyk7MXsseg

[tvbcof]

I used to want to spend bitcoins for goods and services to support the currency, due to idealism, but for now I'd rather just use dollars again. I put my savings in bitcoin. I hoard. I have a large (for me) offline/kind-of-brain- wallet that I don't plan on touching. I keep about 15 BTC online in case I do want to buy something. I would like to have all of my money in bitcoin, but it's convenient to keep a revolving door on my bank account for paychecks/bills. So when I can be paid in bitcoins and pay my bills in bitcoins, I'll start actually using bitcoins.

I'm in the same boat, but consider my BTC stash to be technically more speculation than savings.

Much to the annoyance of a lot of people I suspect, I hold (and vocalize) my contention that at this time fiat works reasonably well and that the situation will likely severely hamper Bitcoin as an exchange currency as long as it persists.  I'm not hesitant to voice this opinion because I figure that the more people who conceptualize it, the less heartache among the more idealistic when they expect more from the solution than it is likely to give at the present time.  Assuming my analysis is roughly correct at least.

Secondly and more recently, I hold that Bitcoin actually involves non-trivial fees and hassle to obtain, and it may get much harder at any moment (that is, if there is more of a crack-down and pressure on exchanges.)  Thus BTC are somewhat dear to me and I would much rather burn fiat on things I want/need...all else being equal and as long as I have fiat to burn.

[fivemileshigh]

That photo is 'shopped. You can't actually swim in gold coins.

He's not trying to swim. He's trying to commit suicide, he's probably depressed from hoarding all that wealth 


On-topic, I don't get what's so perilous about hoarding, it's not like the guy died because of it.

[Desolator]

Then came the task of finding relatives. Investigators used list of people who attended Samaszko's mother's funeral to track down a first cousin who lives in San Rafael, Calif.

“This will be good for her,” Glover said

YOU THINK?!

Btw mega lolz @ "“He was apparently buying gold from a local coin dealer. We found it in sealed boxes marked 'books.'"
Cuz nobody would ever look there or steal books, lol.

[Gabi]

From some hoarding site:

"There appears to be a strong genetic component to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of the hoarding type. Modeling and conditioning may also play a role in the development of this disorder. OCD usually involves over-activity and/or under-activity of brain regions that underpin the observed behaviors. Hoarding worries and behaviors can begin in childhood, even as young as age five."

That photo is 'shopped. You can't actually swim in gold coins.

To be correct, only Scrooge can swim in gold coins. When others tried, they ended like Griffin.

[cypherdoc]

That photo is 'shopped. You can't actually swim in gold coins.

He's not trying to swim. He's trying to commit suicide, he's probably depressed from hoarding all that wealth 


On-topic, I don't get what's so perilous about hoarding, it's not like the guy died because of it.

ya never know.  would you ever see the light of day protecting that much gold in your lair?