Retrieving Bitcoins purchased in 2009

[Salty Samaritan]

Hello everyone,

         I have a friend who told me the other day that he purchased 10 BTC "somewhere on a website that was black and orange". He claims he bought it in 2008-2009. He can't remember what the websites name was and since bitcoin wasn't that much back then, obviously he didn't keep track of everything. I was wondering if any of you have come across a "black and orange" bitcoin exchange/website that may have operated in the early stages of Bitcoin? If so your help is much appreciated. Thank you!

[Iranus]

It couldn't have been in 2008 because Bitcoin's genesis block was mined on January 3rd 2009 (in other words, the BTC blockchain didn't exist yet).

The only 2009 exchange that I'm aware of is the New Liberty Standard, which set exchange rates based on the cost of electricity, but this no longer exists.

If your friend does not have access to a wallet containing his private keys (most likely a wallet.dat file in an old Bitcoin QT wallet), he most likely will never have access to these coins.