Donate your historic bitcoin wallet, for preservation at the museum

[Stephen Gornick]

Catherine Eagleton is the Curator of Modern Money at the British Museum.

She asked to send her examples of anything that should be preserved.

"she also mentioned in passing how difficult it is to think of ways to preserve World of Warcraft gold pieces or Facebook credits for posterity

  http://digitaldebateblogs.typepad.com/digital_money/2011/03/still-going-strong-after-14-years.html  

I'm thinking that a wallet.dat containing the generated bitcoins from a very old block, even if the bitcoins have since been spent, would be a candidate for preservation.  

That's all long before I knew of Bitcoin, however.

Her contact info:
  http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/departments/staff/coins_and_medals/catherine_eagleton.aspx

As an aside,

I occasionally see numismatic value of bitcoins discussed.

There are thousands and thousands of early blocks whose generated 50 BTC have not been spent yet.  These will be interesting, because there's no way to tell if the wallet has been copied previously.  Its value will come from knowing how secure it was previously, especially if it has changed hands.

Are virgin bitcoins (generated but never spent) the equivalent of the "uncirculated" grade assessed a physical coin?

[Cryptoman]

Are virgin bitcoins (generated but never spent) the equivalent of the "uncirculated" grade assessed a physical coin?

Perhaps, but they'd certainly be useful for money laundering purposes.

[Stephen Gornick]

Catherine Eagleton is the Curator of Modern Money at the British Museum.

Just to followup, I had written to her to see if she was aware of Bitcoin.  Her response:

From: CEAGLETON
Re: RE: Digital Currency - Bitcoin

Thank you for your email - digital money and future currencies are a particular area of interest for me, and I know a little about Bitcoin. I was inte
rested to learn that there are plans to develop a physical version of it, and would be very keen to get some specimens for the museum's collection, if you might be able to put me in touch with the relevant people?

With best wishes, and I hope you enjoy the book,

Catherine Eagleton

Her book:
  http://www.amazon.com/Money-History-Catherine-Eagleton/dp/1554072824

[jav]

I don't know if the museum visitors would understand it, but I think a good exhibition piece for Bitcoin would simply be a nice printout of a private key holding a freshly awarded 50 BTC block. I guess one of the "earlier" blocks would be nice, but hey, this is all still pioneering days, so no need to be so picky. The museum would just need to make sure that you can't see all of the private key, otherwise a smart visitor will steal the money from them. =)

I would think it would make a nice exhibition piece for a cryptocurrency. After all, that's what they are all about: numbers! :-)

[Cusipzzz]

Could be the equivalent of a meatspace Faucet.

Leave the printed keys to addresses with say .10btc each scattered around the museum, for people to collect. Check them and replace the spent ones regularly.

Better yet, print out a few thousand of them and drop them out of a plane, with instructions.

[Stephen Gornick]

I don't know if the museum visitors would understand it, but I think a good exhibition piece for Bitcoin would simply be a nice printout of a private key holding a freshly awarded 50 BTC block.

Necrothread, sorry, but here's the end result:



Bitcoins at the British Museum
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=122274.0

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Could be the equivalent of a meatspace Faucet.

Leave the printed keys to addresses with say .10btc each scattered around the museum, for people to collect. Check them and replace the spent ones regularly.

Better yet, print out a few thousand of them and drop them out of a plane, with instructions.

WOW!!!