Are old addresses worth anything?

[SgtSpike]

I've got a ton of Bitcoin "firstbits" addresses that were generated (and written to the blockchain via transactions) back in the day... 2011-ish.  Is there any interest in those?  Thought there might be some interest as a sort of novelty to have, a digital collectible.

They've been kept on air-gapped storage, never seen network or internet access, and would remain that way (securely deleted as sold).  I generated them and have been the sole owner of them this whole time - no one else has touched them.

Some random examples include:
1MunCh - 1MunCh1kFAwisrTySvZvyxsXkrEeFCMehH
1BLing - 1BLingJstkxW53nsjNbDe7zFUJ5P42KuJC
1DiRty - 1DiRty8t4qJhCmp5QL2BqThdHLcAgHTDeb
1MaRTiN - 1MaRTiNSNqawwV3iGCakD2AA4Jj8m9TQvL

[1715490380]

1715490380

[1715490380]

1715490380

[1715490380]

1715490380

[BG4]

I've got a ton of Bitcoin "firstbits" addresses that were generated (and written to the blockchain via transactions) back in the day... 2011-ish.  Is there any interest in those?  Thought there might be some interest as a sort of novelty to have, a digital collectible.

They've been kept on air-gapped storage, never seen network or internet access, and would remain that way (securely deleted as sold).  I generated them and have been the sole owner of them this whole time - no one else has touched them.

Some random examples include:
1MunCh - 1MunCh1kFAwisrTySvZvyxsXkrEeFCMehH
1BLing - 1BLingJstkxW53nsjNbDe7zFUJ5P42KuJC
1DiRty - 1DiRty8t4qJhCmp5QL2BqThdHLcAgHTDeb
1MaRTiN - 1MaRTiNSNqawwV3iGCakD2AA4Jj8m9TQvL

So...  you are the one that did that back then....   Loved you work...

So you have early funded Vanity Addresses....    with all the forks..


Would make for some fun loaded Coins

I'm more interested in the story why you did it... 
 You should share the story...  im sure others are interested too...

[AB de Royse777]

I've got a ton of Bitcoin "firstbits" addresses that were generated (and written to the blockchain via transactions) back in the day... 2011-ish.  Is there any interest in those?  Thought there might be some interest as a sort of novelty to have, a digital collectible.

They've been kept on air-gapped storage, never seen network or internet access, and would remain that way (securely deleted as sold).  I generated them and have been the sole owner of them this whole time - no one else has touched them.

Some random examples include:
1MunCh - 1MunCh1kFAwisrTySvZvyxsXkrEeFCMehH
1BLing - 1BLingJstkxW53nsjNbDe7zFUJ5P42KuJC
1DiRty - 1DiRty8t4qJhCmp5QL2BqThdHLcAgHTDeb
1MaRTiN - 1MaRTiNSNqawwV3iGCakD2AA4Jj8m9TQvL

I do not find any of them worth anything for me and pretty sure these would not worth anything for others too. Even if they have interest still they can not use any of these address since you already have the private keys. They would have to trust you.

The only emotion with these addresses attached are with you. You have created them long ago and I see you came up with some names and random verbs. Same as BG4 I would be interested to know the story behind creating these address. Hopefully it will be an interesting story.

[SgtSpike]

Alright, story time!

I was hired to develop the firstbits website and generate addresses to potentially sell in the future.  The sale of the addresses would help support hosting the site, and would hopefully provide extra profit beyond that.  The website was created and we spent quite a lot of time putting together a dictionary of English words + names to search for.  I put together a computer and ran 6 or 7 batches of them over a few days/weeks using a python script, saving any addresses that matched the criteria and sending a satoshi to eat to "claim" those firstbits before anyone else.  Initially, I had sent 0.1 BTC to each and then recovered it back to a different address (that was interesting, to have to generate a transaction from an air-gapped machine!).  Decided later on it was simpler to send a satoshi to each address and leave it there.

However, there was a lot of criticism for the firstbits idea, for good reason.  Definitely some benefits, but big dangers as well, chief of which (in my mind) was the webserver getting hacked and the database or website being changed.  As the blockchain exploded in size, the database became a bit unwieldy and I wasn't much of a data guy back then so rather than invest a bunch of time in the issues, we turned off the website.  I still have the domain.

Royse777 - yes, you would have to trust me to use the address, that's a given.  Similar to early Casascius coins, I suppose.  Could still be used to sign messages if you didn't want to send any BTC to the address!

[AB de Royse777]

Impressive effort you put on that. Imagine if you would have put that much effort in mining coins at that time. Hopefully you did by the way.

Royse777 - yes, you would have to trust me to use the address, that's a given.  Similar to early Casascius coins, I suppose.  Could still be used to sign messages if you didn't want to send any BTC to the address!

Signing a message is all what I see the use of it other than that there are not any (much) use.

[SgtSpike]

Impressive effort you put on that. Imagine if you would have put that much effort in mining coins at that time. Hopefully you did by the way.

Royse777 - yes, you would have to trust me to use the address, that's a given.  Similar to early Casascius coins, I suppose.  Could still be used to sign messages if you didn't want to send any BTC to the address!

Signing a message is all what I see the use of it other than that there are not any (much) use.

I did lots of mining back in the day, yes!

Also had a lot more free time than I do now...