519.704 received at 1TBZjmXho6mdGhoESaMV2svtqJXYtWfEp - Lost and Found?

[gbl08ma]

. . . Now 200 BTC more from who the hell knows . . .

I'd just hang on to it for a bit.  Maybe send it off to a paper wallet to avoid accidentally spending it.

At over 200 BTC, my guess is that someone is going to realize what they've accidentally done, and start searching for the person who owns 1tbzj.  There is probably going to be a post in the Newbie forum some time in the next few days (weeks?) asking, "How do I get back BTC that I accidentally sent to the wrong address!!!?"  Someone will teach them how to sign messages, and then send them over to this thread.

I'm not sure how long is a reasonable amount of time to keep track of BTC that were sent to you unsolicited.  At what point should a person decide that it is a donation (or tip) instead of an accident?

From my point of view a true newbie never has that much money to send accidentally... someone who has 200 BTC should probably know enough about Bitcoin to know what to do, or else I'd say it's an early adopter which forgot about the project for some years and is coming back now (and in that case, from where did the person in question get the wrong address to send to?).

Is there any chance there's someone sending money to OP's address, with the intention of sending to another address with the same/similar firstbits?

[DannyHamilton]

In this case: BTC 0.03 is a tip, BTC 300 is an accident.

Interesting. So the difference between a tip/donation and an accident is determined by the amount?

So, at what it the transition amount?

Is 0.1 BTC a tip or donation?
0.5 BTC?
1.0 BTC?
5 BTC?
10 BTC?
50 BTC?
100 BTC?

Is the transition point a well understood amount that most of society agrees on, or just your personal feelings on the matter?  If it is just your personal feelings on the matter, then it seems rather arbitrary and error prone.  If someone else uses a different transition point, is one of you a thief?  Is the other paranoid and failing to use money that was intended for your use?

[zaj]

donate them to pirate's scam victims :') you will be forever known as a hero in bitcoinland!

[TheButterZone]

And another 300 it seems: http://blockchain.info/tx/3d2c9e562de4de64cb57eb69623bfa144af24676e96cb6b446b3e26bffb6abb7

I draw my hat, TheButterZone, for wanting to return it.

Just got the email notification from bitcoinmonitor.net about that one first thing this morning. /facepalm

Edited the OP with that added and some more info.

[greyhawk]

That's a lot of butter.

[odolvlobo]

There is a chance that someone has obtained the private key for 1tbzj and is using it for some reason. There is an extraordinarily small chance of a collision. You might move your own funds out just be safe.

But most likely someone is just sending them to the wrong address by mistake. It's fairly easy to make that mistake.

Maybe that email about transferring money for some Nigerian prince was actually true!

[TheButterZone]

There is a chance that someone has obtained the private key for 1tbzj and is using it for some reason. There is an extraordinarily small chance of a collision. You might move your own funds out just be safe.

I was considering that, now done. Part 2 would be to transfer the 519.704, now 519.70399999 because of the minimum trans fee to segregate the two amounts, to an offline wallet that I have secured against fire/flood/theft. Then if someone had a collision, they'll see "their" key emptied, and hopefully post in this forum that they suffered a theft (if they don't see this thread first), sign with MY key, and get their BTC back. Then I'll have to generate a new vanity address knowing 1tbzj is compromised.

[Luke-Jr]

There is a chance that someone has obtained the private key for 1tbzj and is using it for some reason. There is an extraordinarily small chance of a collision. You might move your own funds out just be safe.

I was considering that, now done. Part 2 would be to transfer the 519.704, now 519.70399999 because of the minimum trans fee to segregate the two amounts, to an offline wallet that I have secured against fire/flood/theft. Then if someone had a collision, they'll see "their" key emptied, and hopefully post in this forum that they suffered a theft (if they don't see this thread first), sign with MY key, and get their BTC back. Then I'll have to generate a new vanity address knowing 1tbzj is compromised.

Actually, is this the brain wallet you were talking about the other day? In that case, it's probably pretty likely that's what's going on here...

[wizkid057]

Strangeness?

[TheButterZone]

There is a chance that someone has obtained the private key for 1tbzj and is using it for some reason. There is an extraordinarily small chance of a collision. You might move your own funds out just be safe.

I was considering that, now done. Part 2 would be to transfer the 519.704, now 519.70399999 because of the minimum trans fee to segregate the two amounts, to an offline wallet that I have secured against fire/flood/theft. Then if someone had a collision, they'll see "their" key emptied, and hopefully post in this forum that they suffered a theft (if they don't see this thread first), sign with MY key, and get their BTC back. Then I'll have to generate a new vanity address knowing 1tbzj is compromised.

Actually, is this the brain wallet you were talking about the other day? In that case, it's probably pretty likely that's what's going on here...

As covered in #bitcoin-otc after you posted this, no 1tbzj is not a brain wallet, it's a vanity. Also, "the other day" I had said I use brainwallet.org saved to a USB key for offline use. Not that I actually have a brainwallet and use the generator page to convert it to a private key.

[Luke-Jr]

Also, "the other day" I had said I use brainwallet.org saved to a USB key for offline use.

This doesn't actually make brain wallets safe.

[TheButterZone]

Also, "the other day" I had said I use brainwallet.org saved to a USB key for offline use.

This doesn't actually make brain wallets safe.

I'm sure there are threads about this already, but I don't have A brain wallet, so this is OT.

[farlack]

Free $7,000?

Lucky you.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Maybe because it's Christmas?

Maybe someone won lessthan1 on satoshidice?

[molecular]

it's not a collision.

someone made a mistake (accidentally entered the address somewhere, at an exchange for example. It can happen easily: have 1btc in clipboard for some reason, try to copy own address and fail, paste into mtgox, forget to double-check). That's the only plausible explanation I can come up with.

My take on what is the "right" thing to do: Wait (maybe 3 months, it's up to you). If someone shows up and can prove he owns the address, give him the money. Expect 10% or so in "finder's reward". If noone shows up, you can consider the money yours... you just won the lottery. It's up to you what to do with it, but if you want to build reputation by not keeping it for yourself consider helping some bitcoin-related project or starting your own. Don't give it as pittance to scam victims, that'd be just stupid and probably throwing money down the same hole. Put up a bounty for something cool you'd like to see done or whatever and don't let anyone else (including me) tell you what to do

Does anyone know what our beloved law has to say about such a case (say someone accidentally mails you 4 ounces of gold, no sending address on the package). You're probably obligated to make reasonable effort to return it, I'm not sure. After that? I have no idea.

[TheButterZone]

If it was a mistake, it was repeated over and over and over again, which beggars belief to suppose it was a single paste. Do any exchanges let you enter a single withdrawal address that sticks until you change it? I know Gox makes me put in a new withdrawal address each time...

I'm seeking legal counsel at this point.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

If it was a mistake, it was repeated over and over and over again, which beggars belief to suppose it was a single paste. Do any exchanges let you enter a single withdrawal address that sticks until you change it? I know Gox makes me put in a new withdrawal address each time...

I'm seeking legal counsel at this point.

What do you mean?

1. You've posted on the forums. Wait for 3 months and see if anyone claims it.
2. If not, take the coins. Donate it if you're generous.
3. Feel good karma or feel profit

[wachtwoord]

This is just like finding an envelope with money. In every jurisdiction I know of it's yours after:

1) You made a sincere attempt to find the owner (posting here and emptying the address to a temp address to get the attention of the owner suffices imo).
2) You have waited a fair amount of time (1 month in my jurisdiction iirc)

You seem to be really honest (it's Bitcoin, not much someone could do to take it from you) so I'm happy it was someone like you to receive this

BTW: When people say chances of collision is low they don't mean 'low' as people use the word in normal everyday life. In reality the chances are infinitely small. The chance of Sol going supernova in the next microsecond is considerably larger then the chance of a collision ever occurring.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Developers, is there any way to prevent collisions, so we don't have to put monitors on all our addresses?  

I am not a client developer but the simple answer is no.   Private keys are randomly generated and no client has a mechanism of knowing what other addresses have been created.  For example if you wanted to you could generate a private key by rolling a large number of dice and converting the results into a 256 bit number, then manually compute (using pen and a lot of paper) the public key and address.  It is simply impossible for a node to know what other random numbers in the world have been used.

Still I don't believe this is a collision, not without extensive evidence to the contrary. Assuming the private key is randomly generated, the odds of a collision are simple so incredibly low that they can be considered ~0% for all intents and purposes.

[Luke-Jr]

BTW: When people say chances of collision is low they don't mean 'low' as people use the word in normal everyday life. In reality the chances are infinitely small. The chance of Sol going supernova in the next microsecond is considerably larger then the chance of a collision ever occurring.

For a properly generated address, right. But this one came from a closed source vanity address generator of dubious design.