[2021-08-14] A bunch of MIT students got $100 of free bitcoin in 2014 – some go

[Woodie]

 A bunch of MIT students got $100 of free bitcoin in 2014 – some got rich, some wasted it on sushi

Jeremy Rubin was a sophomore studying computer science and electrical engineering when he decided that he wanted to give every undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology $100 worth of bitcoin.

Seven months later – armed with half a million dollars in donations from alumni and bitcoin enthusiasts – Rubin offered to do just that, and 3,108 undergrads took him up on it.

popular cryptocurrency wasn't quite so popular, trading at around $336. Had all recipients of this free bitcoin let their crypto wallets sit idle, the "MIT Airdrop" collective would have been $44.1 million richer by today's prices.

But some students didn't hold on.

Researchers tracing the project, including Christian Catalini, now co-creator of the Diem stablecoin project initiated by Facebook, say that 1 in 10 cashed out in the first two weeks. By the end of the experiment in 2017, 1 in 4 had cashed out. The experiment creators stopped tracking transactions among the cohort after that.

Van Phu, now a software engineer and co-founder of crypto broker Floating Point Group, is still kicking himself for spending a lot of his bitcoin on sushi.

"One of the worst things and one of the best things at MIT is this restaurant called Thelonious Monkfish," said Phu. "I spent a lot of my crypto buying sushi."

Phu wasn't alone in hemorrhaging his virtual coins at this campus dining hotspot.

Quantitative trader Sam Trabucco, who also took part in the experiment, estimated that half the people he knew spent their crypto spoils on fish.

"It was the only restaurant in Cambridge that was accepting bitcoin at the time, and it was a pretty popular spot," he said. The restaurant has since changed its name and retired its bitcoin payment policy.

Read more https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/14/mit-student-gave-away-100-worth-of-bitcoin-to-all-undergrads-in-2014.html

I wonder If there are any ex students still holding their  bitcoin after receiving the free coins and not forgetting the restaurant that retired bitcoin payments.

[trannguyenbtc]

Damn.
I sold 1 btc to a stranger in a starbucks  off an ad on craiglist in 2014...
For $500.
No, yeah yours is much worse.

[NeuroticFish]

A bunch of MIT students got $100 of free bitcoin in 2014

I remember those days/news. I was envying them back then. Of course, I was also not smart enough to buy a couple of Bitcoin at that time.
I've bought though some satoshi in 2015, during that "crypto winter", hoping that maybe, with some luck, Bitcoin will go again over 1000$ someday.

I think that most of those who didn't spend the coins basically forgot about them. In 2014-2015 the mood was not great.

[cr1776]

...
"It was the only restaurant in Cambridge that was accepting bitcoin at the time, and it was a pretty popular spot," he said. The restaurant has since changed its name and retired its bitcoin payment policy.
...

One also wonders if the restaurant was just cashing out as soon as someone purchased with bitcoin or held on to the coins.  I suspect that it was the cashing out option since that was probably easier on them. 

This is the age old ant and grasshopper phenomena:  some people will plan, work, and save, and some people will just spend without a thought to the day after tomorrow. 

[NeuroticFish]

One also wonders if the restaurant was just cashing out as soon as someone purchased with bitcoin or held on to the coins.  I suspect that it was the cashing out option since that was probably easier on them.  

They may have even cashed out at a loss, or they may have cashed out at some 1000$... which now means peanuts...
The chance the restaurant actually kept a significant amount of Bitcoin is not too big indeed...

[cr1776]

One also wonders if the restaurant was just cashing out as soon as someone purchased with bitcoin or held on to the coins.  I suspect that it was the cashing out option since that was probably easier on them.  

They may have even cashed out at a loss, or they may have cashed out at some 1000$... which now means peanuts...
The chance the restaurant actually kept a significant amount of Bitcoin is not too big indeed...

I agree, it certainly seems unlikely that they kept it, but I hope they did and surprise people with it eventually.