Lost large number of bitcoins ----> 10 year anniversary

[DougM]

An interesting article about a sad event that occurred 10 years ago when 'stone man' lost 8999 bitcoins
https://decrypt.co/38294/10-years-ago-a-man-lost-bitcoin-thats-now-worth-100-million

Original thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.msg8620#msg8620

Transaction that transferred 8999 bitcoins to a inaccessible "change" address. Ouch back them, but now a  ~100 million OUCH  
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/eb5b761c7380ed4c6adf688f9e5ab94953dcabeda47d9eeabd77261902fccccf 
Edit: corrected link...thanks TheArchaeologist!

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[Collier1]

This is but one of the reminders that Bitcoin was a far less user-friendly system back in 2010. Since no seed phrases or any other means of restoring access to your wallet existed at the time, BTC addresses were recorded in a single “wallet.dat” file. If you lost it—due to a drive being misplaced or simply breaking, for example—you lost all your funds. And in this case, a fortune.

https://decrypt.co/38294/10-years-ago-a-man-lost-bitcoin-thats-now-worth-100-million

All thanks to developers for making the system more reliable and flexible which in turn has increased people's interest in Bitcoin and as well provided needed prominence. If there were continuous stories about such incidence on the Bitcoin system it would've surely installed threat and the feeling of insecurity to then future investor and users at large and so would mar the supposed prominence and success of Bitcoin over the years.

Bitcoin will keep going stronger and better!!!

[Pmalek]

He used a bootable Linux OS and never made a backup of his wallet.dat after he sent that 1 BTC transaction. Basically he forgot to make a backup of the updated wallet.dat that contained the information about the destination address where those 8.999 BTC went. He was left with holding 1 BTC out of 9.000.
What an unlucky guy.

Looks like he gave up on Bitcoin or the forum after this incident. He has not been online since 2010. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=288

[TheArchaeologist]

Transaction that transferred 8999 bitcoins to a inaccessible "change" address. Ouch back them, but now a  ~100 million OUCH 
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/36562330759aa0bf7c35f58641cb12ced2dbe90e2f5d40b418c311fd2f3b9828

The transaction you linked refers to the coinbase transaction of a block reward for a mined block in December 2009.

This is the transaction you refer to, where the 8999 btc were transferred to a change address:
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/eb5b761c7380ed4c6adf688f9e5ab94953dcabeda47d9eeabd77261902fccccf

[DougM]

He used a bootable Linux OS and never made a backup of his wallet.dat after he sent that 1 BTC transaction. Basically he forgot to make a backup of the updated wallet.dat that contained the information about the destination address where those 8.999 BTC went. He was left with holding 1 BTC out of 9.000.
What an unlucky guy.

Looks like he gave up on Bitcoin or the forum after this incident. He has not been online since 2010. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=288

The price of bitcoin in 2010 was fraction of penny and, apparently, he didn’t believe in it otherwise he would buy back 100 times more and never leave crypto-community. But he can’t be blamed, not everyone is born to be a seer. We can only feel sorry for him.

8999 lost bitcoins x 0.06/BTC (est cost at the time) = ~$540 so yes not a large investment at the time.  IMHO he was a seer to invest even that amount at that time. Unfortunately because of his mistake he likely felt jaded/burned by bitcoin and moved on.  I don't blame his reaction given his experience, but I do feel sorry for him.
https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Bitcoin_history#Bitcoin_in_2010

Bitcoin in 2010
May 22nd First online purchase using bitcoin. Laszlo Hanyecz (indireclty) buys Papa John's pizza for 10,000 coins (25 USD – Bitcoin value was 0.0025 cents for 1 coin).
July 12th Bitcoin exchange rate increases 10 times in ten days, from 0.008 USD per BTC to 0.08 USD per BTC.
October 7th Bitcoin exchange rate begins to escalate, after several months stuck at USD $0.06 per BTC.

[DougM]

blockchain.com/btc/tx/eb5b761c7380ed4c6adf688f9e5ab94953dcabeda47d9eeabd77261902fccccf[/url]

Something I don’t understand. The address 167ZWTT8n6s4ya8cGjqNNQjDwDGY31vmHg where his 8,999 coins ended up has continued accumulate bitcoins. The last transaction of 0.00014659 BTC is dated 2020-04-22 02:22. Someone hacked it or just a dust attack? Likely, the second though too much for the dust.

I think you are correct with your dust attack theory. I think we can add this address and any BTC to the forever unspent AKA 'dead' pile 

[Pmalek]

Something I don’t understand. The address 167ZWTT8n6s4ya8cGjqNNQjDwDGY31vmHg where his 8,999 coins ended up has continued accumulate bitcoins. The last transaction of 0.00014659 BTC is dated 2020-04-22 02:22. Someone hacked it or just a dust attack? Likely, the second though too much for the dust.

The decrypt article that OP posted mentioned that as well. According to the article, the last transaction was carried out back in April. But I see that someone carried out a dust attack today.
The authors believe that it is either a dust attack, which it most probably is, or people are sending him Bitcoin out of sympathy.

The 2nd reason they mentioned isn't very logical. If users know about that particular case, and how he lost his Bitcoin, it makes no sense sending additional Bitcoin to an address whose private keys are lost.

[DougM]

Something I don’t understand. The address 167ZWTT8n6s4ya8cGjqNNQjDwDGY31vmHg where his 8,999 coins ended up has continued accumulate bitcoins. The last transaction of 0.00014659 BTC is dated 2020-04-22 02:22. Someone hacked it or just a dust attack? Likely, the second though too much for the dust.

The decrypt article that OP posted mentioned that as well. According to the article, the last transaction was carried out back in April. But I see that someone carried out a dust attack today.
The authors believe that it is either a dust attack, which it most probably is, or people are sending him Bitcoin out of sympathy.

The 2nd reason they mentioned isn't very logical. If users know about that particular case, and how he lost his Bitcoin, it makes no sense sending additional Bitcoin to an address whose private keys are lost.

yeah the 2nd reason would be pouring more salt in the wound even if it is just adding a couple more gains to the massive salt-lick he already has.

[davis196]

An interesting article about a sad event that occurred 10 years ago when 'stone man' lost 8999 bitcoins
https://decrypt.co/38294/10-years-ago-a-man-lost-bitcoin-thats-now-worth-100-million

Original thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.msg8620#msg8620

Transaction that transferred 8999 bitcoins to a inaccessible "change" address. Ouch back them, but now a  ~100 million OUCH  
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/eb5b761c7380ed4c6adf688f9e5ab94953dcabeda47d9eeabd77261902fccccf  
Edit: corrected link...thanks TheArchaeologist!

There were plenty of horror stories about lost Bitcoins during the last 10 years.All of them are pretty interesting...and so what?It's like burning a winning lottery ticket by mistake.
It's quite unfortunate,but life must go on.
Let's think about this from a different perspective.Those 8,999BTC are out of the BTC market circulation forever,so the BTC total supply is even more limited and Bitcoin is even more scarce,which means that the Bitcoin price has a better chance of hitting the moon some day.Always look on the bright side of life.

[thesmallgod]

blockchain.com/btc/tx/eb5b761c7380ed4c6adf688f9e5ab94953dcabeda47d9eeabd77261902fccccf[/url]

Something I don’t understand. The address 167ZWTT8n6s4ya8cGjqNNQjDwDGY31vmHg where his 8,999 coins ended up has continued accumulate bitcoins. The last transaction of 0.00014659 BTC is dated 2020-04-22 02:22. Someone hacked it or just a dust attack? Likely, the second though too much for the dust.

I've been hearing about this dust attack. I wonder if it is possible to recover any lost bitcoin just like the one op mentioned. A lot of people have lost bitcoin especially during the early period. I remembered I use to download blockchain desktop wallet then without understanding how to use it because the owe thing look like a misery to me.

[bL4nkcode]

Something I don’t understand. The address 167ZWTT8n6s4ya8cGjqNNQjDwDGY31vmHg where his 8,999 coins ended up has continued accumulate bitcoins. The last transaction of 0.00014659 BTC is dated 2020-04-22 02:22. Someone hacked it or just a dust attack? Likely, the second though too much for the dust.

I found something interesting advertisement on that dust attack look,


The written phrase is

Code:

Lets use fuLL power of anonymity See memo dot sv topic

Or let's say visit the memo.sv website

And that's really a nice vanity address there. But the site seems unpopular and related to BSV I guess.

[Upgrade00]

I've been hearing about this dust attack. I wonder if it is possible to recover any lost bitcoin just like the one op mentioned.

No, a dust attack cannot be used to get bitcoins which are stuck in a wallet, only the seed phrase and private keys can sign transactions.
 
Dust represents very small amounts of bitcoins (satoshis) and they are used to attempt to break the pseudo anonymity of a wallet owner.
A Bitcoin user who owns a HD wallet can have intputs divided among different addresses. This prevents a link being made between all the addresses they own. When a user receivs a dust input and includes that UTXO in a transaction, the sender (scammer) can link up different addresses to an identity.
• Consider a case where a forum user posts a public address on their profile, if I sent dusts to them I could link all their addresses to their forum profile should they use the dust utxo in transactions. It can also be used to link to exchange addresses.