MicroStrategy - open with their addresses?

[btc123thatthere]

Hi

So with MicroStrategy buying lots of BTC, have they come public with their addresses? Or are they keeping them relatively private? I wonder how many different addresses they're using.

Which raises another question - is there any way of proving BTC possession without even showing your addresse/s?

[BitMaxz]

According to some news, I think they keep the Bitcoin addresses in private they don't mention any BTC address.

About your 2nd question.
No, if without showing your BTC address because how you can show to other people that you have a BTC without sharing the BTC address?

Even you show your BTC address it's still not enough that you own a BTC you still need to provide a "sign message" of that BTC address to prove that you have full control of that address.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Even without showing the addresses to the public. I don't see any reason why such a company would go a head to cause trouble to themselves by lying. Most of such big companies are at times audited and do publish audit reports to the public periodically. So in case anything shady was done, then everything will be reflected in the audit reports.

[GreatArkansas]

(....)
So in case anything shady was done, then everything will be reflected in the audit reports.

Can audit reports be seen public? Since I think OP really wants to know if they really holding those bitcoins they bought as what they told in the public. Me too, I want also to check it, lol. But you got also a point that lying about these can be also huge negative effects on them. They bought bitcoins and told it to the public and it has to do with their public relations and reputation too.

[joniboini]

Can audit reports be seen public?

Maybe for their stakeholders only? I don't think they'll tell us publicly since the public will knows what they're doing with their funds.

[slaman29]

I believe the guys who first came up with the news would have had to confirm that with them but yes this is what I agree with. A lot of companies "buying" Bitcoin may not even really have bought actual bitcoin, simply paid another company who is custodial or who has issued "certificates".

Like buying Bitcoin on an exchange;)

[mk4]

Maybe for their stakeholders only? I don't think they'll tell us publicly since the public will knows what they're doing with their funds.

Not really. If a company is publicly available for investing on stock exchanges, almost all information will(and should) be available to the public(hence why they're called "public" companies).

We can even freely look at their financials: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSTR/financials?p=MSTR

[palle11]

is there any way of proving BTC possession without even showing your addresse/s?

I think this is not that possible a thing as such to happen. The bitcoin address will show the source it is arising from. You can't claim a btc that you can't verify the address and sign message to it for approval of ownership or claim.

[LeGaulois]

 You won't find their addresses, it's not something you'll find anywhere. Including reports for shareholders who are themselves not interested to know since they know such a company can hardly lie. (keep in mind some of its shareholders include BlackRock, the Norwegian government pension fund or Vanguard) In a report, this is not the type of detail you're waiting for either.

I know Microstrategy acquired the bitcoins with spot retail markets and holds with established cryptocurrency custodians (see here) and Ledger proposed them Ledger Vault.
Perhaps by scraping the blockchain you may find some possible addresses but there is no use to know it.

[stompix]

I can't help being amazed how every single time when some company or person buys bitoins there is so much curiosity about how much they've bought, where are they storing them, and sometimes even asking for proof if this really happened. But when it comes to their own person, suddenly privacy is mandatory, everything must be done in secret.

Perhaps by scraping the blockchain you may find some possible addresses but there is no use to know it.

He can start from this hint:

We acquired 21,454 BTC via 78,388 off-chain transactions, then secured it in cold storage with 18 on-chain transactions.  #Bitcoin scales just fine as a store of value.

And then go to the richest adress and start analyzing when each of those was funded  Of course, all this would be a ridiculous waste of time if they have split the coins in random sums of 100-200 BTC in a hundred addresses.

[posi]

A lot of companies "buying" Bitcoin may not even really have bought actual bitcoin, simply paid another company who is custodial or who has issued "certificates".

Like buying Bitcoin on an exchange;)

This was also my thought either and I believe 95% of all US private companies that said they invested or used Bitcoin as their reserve asset does that through Grayscale investments which seems to have gained the support and trust of the US SEC. But, if they directly or indirectly invest in Bitcoin shouldn't be a problem cause it good that they now understand that crypto currency is inevitable in the future.

[ChrisPop]

Their company is listed on NASDAQ - they are required to undergo periodical audits. I wouldn't see why would they reveal the Bitcoin addresses. Would you reveal your bank accounts knowing that other entities can track where you send the money? Although they would only see characters and numbers the transactions are still trackable by experts in the field like Chainanalysis.

[gentlemand]

Unlike a pubicly traded fund why would they bother making the addresses known? There's no incentive on their part. It'll be with a custodian anyway I presume and I also presume they're not too keen on letting the world know who has what either.

[SquallLeonhart]

Without showing any address there is no way of knowing if a person actually owns the amount of bitcoin they say they own, it is impossible, in fact even if someone shows you a blockchain wallet address and tell you that they own that, it is still not enough you would have to have them sign that address in order to prove that they own it, otherwise I could just show satoshis address and tell someone that I own that address as well, would that be believable? No one in the crypto industry long enough would believe that, so you would need them to sign that address as well.

However one thing is guaranteed, when we are talking about a company as big as microstrategy, they do not need to provide address, in fact hiding it is a better option to keep away from hackers, you just have to trust a billions of dollars worth of company.

[tbct_mt2]

Without showing any address there is no way of knowing if a person actually owns the amount of bitcoin they say they own, it is impossible, in fact even if someone shows you a blockchain wallet address and tell you that they own that, it is still not enough you would have to have them sign that address in order to prove that they own it, otherwise I could just show satoshis address and tell someone that I own that address as well, would that be believable? No one in the crypto industry long enough would believe that, so you would need them to sign that address as well.

However one thing is guaranteed, when we are talking about a company as big as microstrategy, they do not need to provide address, in fact hiding it is a better option to keep away from hackers, you just have to trust a billions of dollars worth of company.

Companies if they care about security and protection for their bitcoin, they will choose non-custodial wallets, and with multi-signature type. They will store their bitcoin in cold wallet and to sign any transaction from that wallet, multi signature will be a mandatory.

Hackers can steal one of multi keys but they won't be able to steal all and they won't be able to steal bitcoin from multi-signature wallet.

Big company like Micro Strategy will have a big adviso team behind and they are able to secure their bitcoin and will never reveal their bitcoin address, keys publicly.