Has Satoshi destroyed his coins?

[ning]

Satoshi could have already destroyed the majority of the coins he mined from the early days of Bitcoin. Here is the logic: It's highly unlikely for him to spend the coins mined from the early blocks because doing so may reveal his identity. So, even if he hasn't destroyed his early coins, he probably would never spend them. Thus, a descent amount of coins should be subtracted from the twenty-one million coins that will ever be existing. This will increase the value of each and every coin you and I own.

Hail to Satoshi.

[raze]

The fact that there aren't 21 million coins won't really increase the value of the coins that you or I hold. It just means that there are less "full" coins (i.e. 1BTC). Since you can just add another decimal place whenever you need to, the value of a Bitcoin will always be divisible.

Satoshi could cash out some of the coins eventually, using mules and other third parties, but I don't think he/she/they will. The other possibility would be that he/she/they created another pseudonym to seem like another early adopter, and continued to mine with another machine which would make it impossible to tell they were his/her/their coins.

There's just too many possibilities, chances are we'll never find out.

[solex]

Unlikely.

Satoshi put too much hard work into Bitcoin. He kept it going almost single-handedly for large periods of 2009 and early 2010. He deserves some reward.

Also, all those coins are too useful. They give a lot of firepower to protect the system. Imagine anonymous donations for politicians and lobbyists to fight Bitcoin's corner against the CB and bankster complex who would try to cripple it. Lots of potential uses like funding software developments too.

[TheGovernedSelf]

Satoshi could have already destroyed the majority of the coins he mined from the early days of Bitcoin. Here is the logic: It's highly unlikely for him to spend the coins mined from the early blocks because doing so may reveal his identity. So, even if he hasn't destroyed his early coins, he probably would never spend them. Thus, a descent amount of coins should be subtracted from the twenty-one million coins that will ever be existing. This will increase the value of each and every coin you and I own.

Hail to Satoshi.

He created a new address for every block of 50 that he mined.

This allows him to:
Be protected from someone brute forcing his private key, since this unlikely event would only lead to the loss of 50 BTC.
He can also perpetually maintain his anonymity.



The 110,000 BTC address is not Satoshi. It is more likely the Winklevoss twins or a big drug dealer from the Silk Road, or Dread Pirate Roberts himself.

[jdbtracker]

Could be a trap as well. anyone can attack the network but if those coins were destroyed they become an easy target for burglars. if someone finds a way to crack the SHA256 encryption Satoshi will know and may alert the rest of the network to move on to another encryption protocol.

it could also be as a safe guard if something goes wrong with the network, they will begin releasing the private keys to the network if a dangerous entity gains a massive amount of unusable coins... like an attack that accumulated all the coins in existence and destroyed them to be unrecoverable forever.

[mprep]

Probably no. He's hiding them for a big occasion, when the right time comes.

[K1773R]

Satoshi could have already destroyed the majority of the coins he mined from the early days of Bitcoin. Here is the logic: It's highly unlikely for him to spend the coins mined from the early blocks because doing so may reveal his identity. So, even if he hasn't destroyed his early coins, he probably would never spend them. Thus, a descent amount of coins should be subtracted from the twenty-one million coins that will ever be existing. This will increase the value of each and every coin you and I own.

Hail to Satoshi.

He created a new address for every block of 50 that he mined.

This allows him to:
Be protected from someone brute forcing his private key, since this unlikely event would only lead to the loss of 50 BTC.
He can also perpetually maintain his anonymity.



The 110,000 BTC address is not Satoshi. It is more likely the Winklevoss twins or a big drug dealer from the Silk Road, or Dread Pirate Roberts himself.

no, bitcoind did create a unique address per found block

[mmeijeri]

It's highly unlikely for him to spend the coins mined from the early blocks because doing so may reveal his identity.

He could safely donate them to worthy causes though. It might draw a lot of attention to both Bitcoin and the chosen causes.

[jackjack]

It's highly unlikely for him to spend the coins mined from the early blocks because doing so may reveal his identity.

He could safely donate them to worthy causes though. It might draw a lot of attention to both Bitcoin and the chosen causes.

Not many worthy causes accept bitcoins

[Galahad]

The mystery of Satoshi becomes ever more intractable.

[mmeijeri]

Not many worthy causes accept bitcoins

There are a few, and more might follow if they saw what happened. Of course, I have no reason to believe Satoshi intends to do this, but I think it would be more useful than having the coins just sit there. It is true that having them sit there would increase the value of the remaining coins, but the publicity might have a greater effect.

[No 1]

My guess is he used a majority of coin to physically alter his appearance as well as his dna and is now frozen somewhere underground awaiting a big spike in btc price lol

[jackjack]

Not many worthy causes accept bitcoins

There are a few, and more might follow if they saw what happened. Of course, I have no reason to believe Satoshi intends to do this, but I think it would be more useful than having the coins just sit there. It is true that having them sit there would increase the value of the remaining coins, but the publicity might have a greater effect.

I agree but it will have an even greater publicity when 1BTC=$1000

[jackjack]

Also, don't forget that if somebody ever use early coins mined by Satoshi, it is highly possible that Satoshi actually sold the corresponding private keys for 50BTC each to the guy who redeemed them... Or even more, these are pieces of history! Or maybe less if he is nice

[fred1111]

Satochi should prove that he has destroyed ~95% of his coins. That would reduce uncertainty, and thus help his project succeed. He is loaded anyways.

I'm pretty sure he can sign a message that proves this destruction.

[BTC_GHD]

I don't think he would destroy his coins. What reason does he have to do that I'm not seeing it

[ToTheMoon1k]

I have a very strong feeling satoshi passed away. People don't just totally drop something they created all of a sudden.

[beetcoin]

Satoshi could have already destroyed the majority of the coins he mined from the early days of Bitcoin. Here is the logic: It's highly unlikely for him to spend the coins mined from the early blocks because doing so may reveal his identity. So, even if he hasn't destroyed his early coins, he probably would never spend them. Thus, a descent amount of coins should be subtracted from the twenty-one million coins that will ever be existing. This will increase the value of each and every coin you and I own.

Hail to Satoshi.

donating the coins to a charitable organization would work.. sure, everyone would know satoshi donated it, but he'd/the group would still be anonymous. that or he could donate it to a libertarian group, especially during an election cycle  

the kind of money that is in that wallet might be enough to win a seat as president after all..

[Voodah]

Highly unlikely. His coins were an investment towards stability.

[LiteCoinGuy]

when he is a really tought badass, he destroyed the coins