[2019-05-04] Whale Moves $230 Million for 57 Cents Using Bitcoin

[tyz]

Whale Moves $230 Million for 57 Cents Using Bitcoin


A bitcoin whale has moved 40,000 BTC (USD $229,000,000) from one Bitcoin address (bc1q9sh6544xls87x7skjzyfhkty4wq7z76vn7qzq9) to another (bc1q5shngj24323nsrmxv99st02na6srekfctt30ch) on May 1st for a negligible network fee.

https://bitcoinist.com/whale-moves-212000-million-for-57-cents-using-bitcoin/

[1Referee]

Loaded is cute. Instead of ignoring the dust in his address he consolidated every input and paid $0.57 as result. If he just spent his 40,000BTC input it would cost him only $0.03-$0.05 depending on the state of the network.

Try to do that with a legacy bank account (after explaining why you want to transfer an amount this large, and who exactly the receving party is), it'll cost you an arm and a leg and a few business days at the very minimum.

[hatshepsut93]

Try to do that with a legacy bank account (after explaining why you want to transfer an amount this large, and who exactly the receving party is), it'll cost you an arm and a leg and a few business days at the very minimum.

People always tell how horrible it is that banks make you wait a few days, but on practice it's actually not that bad - if you need to move tens of thousands of dollars, it will most likely not be urgent. And all those additional versifications are actually security measures, and they seem to be working quite well - you don't hear too often about people getting robbed of their savings from their bank accounts, while with Bitcoin it happens all the time. You could blame it on users for being "stupid", but if a product doesn't work for "stupid" people, how will it reach mass adoption?

[gentlemand]

People always tell how horrible it is that banks make you wait a few days, but on practice it's actually not that bad

Much depends on what country you're in. If you're European it's hard to wrap your head around how pathetic American banking is until you interact with it. For many an American BTC has advantages over banking that don't even occur to Europeans.

[hatshepsut93]

People always tell how horrible it is that banks make you wait a few days, but on practice it's actually not that bad

Much depends on what country you're in. If you're European it's hard to wrap your head around how pathetic American banking is until you interact with it. For many an American BTC has advantages over banking that don't even occur to Europeans.

Yes, I am from Europe and when I do transactions via online banking, they are instant or require a quick SMS confirmation at worst. But I haven't transacted millions yet, so I assume there are some delays (I think the usual threshold is $10,000). Bitcoin's ability to send millions with tiny fees and with only 5-20 minutes for confirmation is certainly very interesting, and there are probably some people who will find it useful, but I don't this that this is something that most users care about.

[1Referee]

People always tell how horrible it is that banks make you wait a few days, but on practice it's actually not that bad - if you need to move tens of thousands of dollars, it will most likely not be urgent. And all those additional versifications are actually security measures, and they seem to be working quite well - you don't hear too often about people getting robbed of their savings from their bank accounts, while with Bitcoin it happens all the time. You could blame it on users for being "stupid", but if a product doesn't work for "stupid" people, how will it reach mass adoption?

I'm not per se against banks, but their service is just horrible when it comes to cross border transactions. That was basically my point.

I right now calculated what it will cost me to send €1000 to the US. The fee for a non urgent transaction is a flat €28 where on top of that, 1.5% in conversion fees are added, which means €29.5 in total. Settlement ~10 business days. An urgent transaction is €55 plus the 1.5% conversion fee. Settlement ~2 business days.

As Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple prefers to say; it's faster in most cases to fly the money to whatever country yourself.

[gentlemand]

I'm not per se against banks, but their service is just horrible when it comes to cross border transactions. That was basically my point.

I right now calculated what it will cost me to send €1000 to the US. The fee for a non urgent transaction is a flat €28 where on top of that, 1.5% in conversion fees are added, which means €29.5 in total. Settlement ~10 business days. An urgent transaction is €55 plus the 1.5% conversion fee. Settlement ~2 business days.

As Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple prefers to say; it's faster in most cases to fly the money to whatever country yourself.

Yeah. Cross border is staggeringly bad. I booked a holiday house in the US. They insisted on it being a cheque for some reason. That took several days to create. Then the payee fucking lost it. Another one was created and sent. All in all it took about 3-4 weeks to actually have the money in their hands. In the middle the exchange rate turned downwards so it cost me more.

I find it really strange how little people question how painful that aspect is but I suppose the majority don't pay across borders. When they are abroad they have cash or their debit card to milk them of fees.

[NeuroticFish]

When they are abroad they have cash or their debit card to milk them of fees.

And since average Joe goes abroad only for fun/holiday/city break, he may not even pay enough attention to the few percents he gives extra to the banks, because hey, one doesn't have to be cheap when we talk about his own holiday.

On the other hand the banks are also adapting. My bank has now "happy hour" when I can exchange between my local currency and USD or EUR at a very good rate (national bank's exchange rate) max 1000 EUR/day and I can make my debit card work with EUR when I want to. Which becomes interesting at holidays.

Still, I'd prefer to pay directly with Bitcoin 

[veleten]

Try to do that with a legacy bank account (after explaining why you want to transfer an amount this large, and who exactly the receving party is), it'll cost you an arm and a leg and a few business days at the very minimum.

People always tell how horrible it is that banks make you wait a few days, but on practice it's actually not that bad - if you need to move tens of thousands of dollars, it will most likely not be urgent. And all those additional versifications are actually security measures, and they seem to be working quite well - you don't hear too often about people getting robbed of their savings from their bank accounts, while with Bitcoin it happens all the time. You could blame it on users for being "stupid", but if a product doesn't work for "stupid" people, how will it reach mass adoption?

happens more than you can imagine , it just doesn't get as much media coverage as any bitcoin related crime
banking system is hundreds years old , while bitcoin is not even 10 - security will improve with time and people will be treating bitcoins same as their banking accounts or fiat money
as for the product for "stupid" people , banking is not that simplistic either
I am sure a sizeable portion  of the population are overpaying for their credit cards ,mortgages etc. just because they cannot be bothered reading the terms or to switch to a plan that suits them most  

[BitHodler]

There doesn't seem to be much logic in this move. It isn't split in smaller fractions for security purposes, there were no forks to unload, and I doubt this bull whale has sold his coins at once through an OTC deal.

The most probable reason likely is that he sent his coins to an address generated in a much more secure way. Good bit of free advertising for bitcointalk though. This is being picked up even by local crypto news sites here.

[milewilda]

Try to do that with a legacy bank account (after explaining why you want to transfer an amount this large, and who exactly the receving party is), it'll cost you an arm and a leg and a few business days at the very minimum.

As expected with traditional banks on transferring with these staggering amounts where there would be always have that corresponding follow up question plus having some fees with some few days of delays of processing such transfer.These big amount of transactions using up small fees is really just a normal thing here on crypto thats one of the reasons why people do love it.Just wondering if those amounts are being sold or just simply being moved into other address?

[bL4nkcode]

you don't hear too often about people getting robbed of their savings from their bank accounts, while with Bitcoin it happens all the time.

But mostly heard getting robbed by taking too huge amount fee for cross border transfer.

You will hear some of the adverse criticisms from bank-people after this news or once btc price hike.

Just wondering if those amounts are being sold or just simply being moved into other address?

Guessing it's only moved from his address inputs to the final address.

[CryptoBry]

When they are abroad they have cash or their debit card to milk them of fees.

And since average Joe goes abroad only for fun/holiday/city break, he may not even pay enough attention to the few percents he gives extra to the banks, because hey, one doesn't have to be cheap when we talk about his own holiday.

On the other hand the banks are also adapting. My bank has now "happy hour" when I can exchange between my local currency and USD or EUR at a very good rate (national bank's exchange rate) max 1000 EUR/day and I can make my debit card work with EUR when I want to. Which becomes interesting at holidays.

Still, I'd prefer to pay directly with Bitcoin 

This is business. Once the banks can feel that there can be viable threats on their market share of course they can do something about it. Once Bitcoin can go mainstream and can take a big share of the money transfer market these banks can introduce their own offerings to entice their customers to stay with them...they can even introduce Bitcoin-like platform to counteract the growing Bitcoin influence. What is good here is that competition always makes the consumers or customers the ultimate winners. The market will then decide where they will go as we are in open business environment where competition is encouraged and awarded.

[gabbie2010]

When they are abroad they have cash or their debit card to milk them of fees.

And since average Joe goes abroad only for fun/holiday/city break, he may not even pay enough attention to the few percents he gives extra to the banks, because hey, one doesn't have to be cheap when we talk about his own holiday.

On the other hand the banks are also adapting. My bank has now "happy hour" when I can exchange between my local currency and USD or EUR at a very good rate (national bank's exchange rate) max 1000 EUR/day and I can make my debit card work with EUR when I want to. Which becomes interesting at holidays.

Still, I'd prefer to pay directly with Bitcoin 

This is business. Once the banks can feel that there can be viable threats on their market share of course they can do something about it. Once Bitcoin can go mainstream and can take a big share of the money transfer market these banks can introduce their own offerings to entice their customers to stay with them...they can even introduce Bitcoin-like platform to counteract the growing Bitcoin influence. What is good here is that competition always makes the consumers or customers the ultimate winners. The market will then decide where they will go as we are in open business environment where competition is encouraged and awarded.

That is why the banking system had  been clamouring  for the outright ban of cryptos having seen it as threat to own existence, sending such a huge amount of bitcoin swiftly and well secured with such a small charges amount to the blockages of sources of incomes to the banks had it been that transaction  was made via the banking system of course an outrageous charges will be paid.
Adoption of cryptos globally  all face many challenges from different directions mostly from the banking sectors.

[Lucius]

Loaded is cute.

You seem to be the only one who noticed that this whale is actually member of this forum, and that he did identical thing in January 2018 when he pay slightly higher fee of $1.09.

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/92785a57f6e9e9eb9d37a00e6e8be7f888376f65fa2b8f868db261cbf6cca7b0


As for money transfer, this is very likely transaction from one address to another, and both addresses are under full control of this person. In case he made such transaction to any crypto exchange he would pay same amount for fee, but he would risk to get frozen his account in case he can not prove origin of that bitcoin.

The reason for the slowness in bank transactions is just because they check the origin of money, and who is sender / receiver, and it takes too much time in some cases.

[BitHodler]

they can even introduce Bitcoin-like platform to counteract the growing Bitcoin influence. What is good here is that competition always makes the consumers or customers the ultimate winners.

The only thing banks need to do is fork XRP and have enough other banks participate in the network to create a much faster banking system. I strongly believe that they are already working on it in the background.

XRP is a centralized coin that doesn't offer any advantage other than being 'better' than what banks currently use to move value. Nothing prevents them to improve that protocol and give Ripple the middle finger.

Also, I doubt customers will benefit from competition with how banks haven't really been keen on competing with others based on fees, where on top of that, in-country value transfers are mostly free already. So what's here to gain?

[hatshepsut93]

I'm not per se against banks, but their service is just horrible when it comes to cross border transactions. That was basically my point.

The problem with Bitcoin for international transactions is that those transactions are the most useful for businesses, but businesses don't want to use Bitcoin for their operations, because it's a) volatile and b) is still in grey legal area, and on practice it will probably attract attention of anti money laundering units. Although there's another use-case where Bitcoin might shine - foreign workers and immigrants sending money to their relatives back in their home country - Bitcoin provides a good opportunity to cut down the fees and time delays.

[vit05]

There doesn't seem to be much logic in this move. It isn't split in smaller fractions for security purposes, there were no forks to unload, and I doubt this bull whale has sold his coins at once through an OTC deal.

He's a trader. The reason must go beyond safety issues. Even more so in that moment in which the market is. If I am not completely mistaken, it is difficult, or impossible, to sign an address bc1 (bech32) Moving can be a way to prove ownership.