50BTC on a wrecked HDD being sold at a Polish auction site

[Mivexil]

http://allegro.pl/uszkodzony-hdd-z-portwelem-bitcoin-50-btc-i3960994511.html

Somebody claims that this HDD contains a wallet with 50BTC on it, but hasn't found a place which would recover the files. Current price is around $50.

I'm very curious whether the winner will be doing his best or worst investment in a lifetime

[fcmatt]

A sucker is born every minute...

[ManeBjorn]

I could recover the data from it as long as the platters are not destroyed but I do not have any money to buy it.
Hopefully someone gets it.
My main concern would be if it's legit the owner may have encrypted the wallet so even if the data file is recovered it is useless without the password.  I don't see the owner offering the code as well.

[Mivexil]

I could recover the data from it as long as the platters are not destroyed but I do not have any money to buy it.
Hopefully someone gets it.
My main concern would be if it's legit the owner may have encrypted the wallet so even if the data file is recovered it is useless without the password.  I don't see the owner offering the code as well.

It's claimed not to be encrypted.

[Nikinger]

Where's the proof for having the 50 BTC on the HD?

You could pull an arbitrary ancient broken HD from the waste and dump it from 50 metres, finally claiming that there was 300 BTC on it.
As long as you can't recover the data, you can't proof that the 300 BTC wasn't there.

[ManeBjorn]

Very true.
It does look doubtful as there are inexpensive services that could get that data.

Where's the proof for having the 50 BTC on the HD?

You could pull an arbitrary ancient broken HD from the waste and dump it from 50 metres, finally claiming that there was 300 BTC on it.
As long as you can't recover the data, you can't proof that the 300 BTC wasn't there.

[Aswan]

Where's the proof for having the 50 BTC on the HD?

You could pull an arbitrary ancient broken HD from the waste and dump it from 50 metres, finally claiming that there was 300 BTC on it.
As long as you can't recover the data, you can't proof that the 300 BTC wasn't there.

You could prove it by looking through all addresses that haven't been used since the date the HDD is claimed to have started malfunctioning (all addresses that had a balance by then but didn't have any outgoing Tx).

That would leave you with a sample of addresses. Now you look through them for addresses that contained 300 BTC at that date. If there are none, you have proven that it was a lie. Also, if there addresses which have the exact amount within that sample, you just have to monitor them. If they spend something, you can strike that address and if there is none left, then someone didn't tell the truth!

[nickenburg]

Where's the proof for having the 50 BTC on the HD?

You could pull an arbitrary ancient broken HD from the waste and dump it from 50 metres, finally claiming that there was 300 BTC on it.
As long as you can't recover the data, you can't proof that the 300 BTC wasn't there.

You could prove it by looking through all addresses that haven't been used since the date the HDD is claimed to have started malfunctioning (all addresses that had a balance by then but didn't have any outgoing Tx).

That would leave you with a sample of addresses. Now you look through them for addresses that contained 300 BTC at that date. If there are none, you have proven that it was a lie. Also, if there addresses which have the exact amount within that sample, you just have to monitor them. If they spend something, you can strike that address and if there is none left, then someone didn't tell the truth!

Sounds interesting, On what website can you do that?

Ontopic: It a risky to buy the hd, but if the 50 bitcoins are on that thing its worth your investment.

[Aswan]

Where's the proof for having the 50 BTC on the HD?

You could pull an arbitrary ancient broken HD from the waste and dump it from 50 metres, finally claiming that there was 300 BTC on it.
As long as you can't recover the data, you can't proof that the 300 BTC wasn't there.

You could prove it by looking through all addresses that haven't been used since the date the HDD is claimed to have started malfunctioning (all addresses that had a balance by then but didn't have any outgoing Tx).

That would leave you with a sample of addresses. Now you look through them for addresses that contained 300 BTC at that date. If there are none, you have proven that it was a lie. Also, if there addresses which have the exact amount within that sample, you just have to monitor them. If they spend something, you can strike that address and if there is none left, then someone didn't tell the truth!

Sounds interesting, On what website can you do that?

Ontopic: It a risky to buy the hd, but if the 50 bitcoins are on that thing its worth your investment.

The Same website you can climb a mountain on O_o..

Why does everything have to be doable on a website? The Blockchain is freely available in the network, everyone can get it and parse it for the info.

Just look at blocks up to the date u are looking for and then start looking through the blockchain.

[Nikinger]

You could prove it by looking through all addresses that haven't been used since the date the HDD is claimed to have started malfunctioning (all addresses that had a balance by then but didn't have any outgoing Tx).

That would leave you with a sample of addresses. Now you look through them for addresses that contained 300 BTC at that date. If there are none, you have proven that it was a lie. Also, if there addresses which have the exact amount within that sample, you just have to monitor them. If they spend something, you can strike that address and if there is none left, then someone didn't tell the truth!

The 300 BTC could have been splitted across various addresses, eg 6x 50 BTC or 50,50,50,50,30,25,25,10,10.
Take the possibility into account that it's not exactly 300 BTC but like 301.58472613 BTC, assembled by many smaller odd amounts, typical for a wallet.
You'll always find unspent amounts to combine the (roughly) 300 BTC, because wallet losses did happen in the past,

[Aswan]

You could prove it by looking through all addresses that haven't been used since the date the HDD is claimed to have started malfunctioning (all addresses that had a balance by then but didn't have any outgoing Tx).

That would leave you with a sample of addresses. Now you look through them for addresses that contained 300 BTC at that date. If there are none, you have proven that it was a lie. Also, if there addresses which have the exact amount within that sample, you just have to monitor them. If they spend something, you can strike that address and if there is none left, then someone didn't tell the truth!

The 300 BTC could have been splitted across various addresses, eg 6x 50 BTC or 50,50,50,50,30,25,25,10,10.
Take the possibility into account that it's not exactly 300 BTC but like 301.58472613 BTC, assembled by many smaller odd amounts, typical for a wallet.
You'll always find unspent amounts to combine the (roughly) 300 BTC, because wallet losses did happen in the past,

Yeah right, if could be split among several addresses but because of this specific case here I kinda went with the assumption that the 50 BTC have been a solo mining reward fron the old days (seems reasonable because its exactly 50 BTC, right).
Also, combined amounts that are roughly the mentioned amount won't do anything if the seller specified the exact amount. Only go for sellers stating exact amounts then

But generally, if theres no exact amount stated, you are right! However, if the seller says its like 300 BTC from 6 solo mined blocks its easier to verify.

Conclusion: Depends on the info the seller provides

[Nikinger]

However, if the seller says its like 300 BTC from 6 solo mined blocks its easier to verify.

You're convinced that none of the solo miners in the early days destroyed or lost his private key? Note that nobody knew for sure that Bitcoin went that far like Bitcoin is today.
If just only a few miners have their hard drives abandoned without making a back up, it would be even still sufficient to fulfill an exactly 6x 50 BTC claim.

[russokai]

Where's the proof for having the 50 BTC on the HD?

You could pull an arbitrary ancient broken HD from the waste and dump it from 50 metres, finally claiming that there was 300 BTC on it.
As long as you can't recover the data, you can't proof that the 300 BTC wasn't there.

Yeah, that's the point...that's probably what they are doing.

[Aswan]

However, if the seller says its like 300 BTC from 6 solo mined blocks its easier to verify.

You're convinced that none of the solo miners in the early days destroyed or lost his private key? Note that nobody knew for sure that Bitcoin went that far like Bitcoin is today.
If just only a few miners have their hard drives abandoned without making a back up, it would be even still sufficient to fulfill an exactly 6x 50 BTC claim.

Nah I am not. Just saying in specific cases there might be a way to prove that the seller is lying depending on the information he discloses.

[doof]

Who cares, $50 is nothing.   Id have a punt at 50btc for that price.

[gentlemand]

I'll sell you an HDD that is guaranteed to have zero BTC for only 5c. Peace of mind and a bargain too.

Surely no one would sell that. They would've exhausted every possible avenue. That's $35,000 or so.

[bananaControl]

It seems like his rating on that site is rather good. I'd buy that lottery ticket any day if I was from Poland or knew any natives. If anything, it would be a fun recovery project.

However, with 13 days to go and the exposure on this forum the price could go up quite a bit.

[apsvinet]

Spending 50 bucks on lottery tickets would be more profitable than this, hope the poor fellah who gets it will be wiser from the experience.

[whtchocla7e]

Spending 50 bucks on lottery tickets would be more profitable than this, hope the poor fellah who gets it will be wiser from the experience.

wiser maybe, richer- for sure.

[roslinpl]

I live in Poland I will make it clear in one place:
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so - "Witam! Do sprzedania mam uszkodzony dysk twardy 2,5" z portfelem bitcoin zawierającym około 50BTC. Dysk sprzedaję jako uszkodzony. Niestety nie udało mi się znaleźć serwisu, który by wyciągnął z niego dane, a bez portfela nie mam nawet jak za to zapłacić. Licytację zaczynamy bez ceny minimalnej od 1zł. Za ile wylicytujesz za tyle kupisz. Dysk uszkodzony (strasznie piszczy, nie da się go odczytać pod systemem), przyjmuje tylko pozytywny komentarz, nie przyjmuję zwrotów.

Dodano 2014-02-09 17:52
W związku z dużą ilością pytań:
- Nie zrobiłem kopii pliku, jak również adresu portfela. Dysk był w starym laptopie, na którym miałem portfel. Kopałem jak trudność była bardzo niska, a kwoty za btc śmieszne.
- Nie gwarantuję możliwości odzyskania pliku. Nie znam się na tym. Portfel nie jest zaszyfrowany.
- Próbowałem dysk odczytać pod klikoma komputerami, bezskutecznie. Dysk jest niewidoczny, piszczy, kręci się.
- Zdjęcie jest poglądowe, dysk nie zawiera uszkodzeń mechanicznych."
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Translation : Hello, I sell broken HDD 2,5'' with bitcoin wallet that cointains around 50BTC. I sell this HDD as a broken. Unlucly I couldn't find anyone who success data recovery, and even if without my wallet I have not enough money to pay for service.
I start this auction without minimal price from 1zl, how much you will give that much you will pay. HDD broken (hi frequency sounds, not visible on any os). (blabla)

FAQ:
-I did not make wallet backup, I did not copy wallet address. I am noob about BTC. Wallet is without password.
-I tried read it on many laptops, pointless. HDD is not visible. Sounds bad, plates rotating.
-HDD is not broken my any mechanically damages.

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I PM here via allegro.pl and offer him to not sell hdd and if he is not scummer we can make a deal - I will make it works and he will give me 25 BTC

lets see what will be a reply