Why would someone want to buy an old empty ethereum address?

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I am a little puzzled by this. Maybe someone has an idea.

A user was seeking to buy old Ethereum addresses that have had more than +1000 transactions.
He was even willing to pay upfront before receiving the private keys, so long as the other trading partner is trustworthy.

Why would someone go to such length?
Is there value in our old addresses that we don't know about? Lol.

[1715277334]

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[GreatArkansas]

I think they are doing it for some airdrops?
There are some projects who have qualifications on some addresses to be able to get some airdrops.
I'm not sure if it is worth it to buy such old Ethereum wallets not unless it is cheap.
I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

[posi]

This is related to the airdrops, and I have also seen some people buying old ethereum wallet in bulk with more transactions than they had in the past.
Although I am not exactly sure what the airdrop is, I do know that they still buy a lot of it. Of course, the price is very cheap because it is an empty and almost unused item.
Cryptocurrency industry is magical, there are ways we can make money that other people can't think of.

[TheUltraElite]

Is there a chance that the person who is buying such an address is trying to fool some upcoming user into showing that they control a certain "old" address and hence attempt to gain the trust of the person in front?

This used to be the case with most of the accounts being sold in this forum, I am trying to project a similarity.

Airdrops, like @GreatArkansas said, could be a reason but I dont see the ROI happening from those airdropped coins vs the amount spent to buy that address. The above scamming methods seems a better investment, logically. After all, which airdrop made its receivers a millionaire? None.

Cryptocurrency industry is magical, there are ways we can make money that other people can't think of.

If what I suspect is true, then it is a scam not magic. I would suggest the OP to not deal in such things unless they are sure of the buyer's motives.

[vv181]

Airdrops, like @GreatArkansas said, could be a reason but I dont see the ROI happening from those airdropped coins vs the amount spent to buy that address. The above scamming methods seems a better investment, logically. After all, which airdrop made its receivers a millionaire? None.

Some people do buy things like an old address that contains transactions, a GitHub account, and an aged active Twitter account to qualify for an airdrop. I never tried it out since I don't see any of it is worth it(the airdropped amount is just so minuscule), even though I do have those mentioned things.

But I think it's only a matter of information, if some people have valuable airdrop information that few people know it, they surely will buy any requirement for the airdrop, even if they only profit a small margin or just simply bet the token/coin will profitable.

[MAAManda]

The answer is very clear, they want to buy it to qualify for an airdrop program, do you remember Uniswap Airdrop? Or recently happened like Optimism (OP) airdrop event. The more transactions you have made, the less likely you are to never make a transaction on the platform that is a requirement for the airdrop event.

FYI, usually they are not only looking for Ethereum addresses with lots of transactions, but they are also usually looking for old Github and Twitter accounts. My advice, if you have something they want to look for, it's better you don't sell it because we don't know what future events will be, who knows you will get a lot of money from there later, LOL.

[goaldigger]

I think they are doing it for some airdrops?
There are some projects who have qualifications on some addresses to be able to get some airdrops.
I'm not sure if it is worth it to buy such old Ethereum wallets not unless it is cheap.
I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

I didn’t know airdrop requires huge number of transactions now with regards to the address that they are going to provide, this is quiet suspicious honestly since we don’t really know the exact reason of those buyer. With regards to the safety of the seller, maybe if the wallet used in fraud and the seller exposed his real identity before using that address, most probably he will be the one to suffer the consequences if the authority finds him. The seller can still have that key and monitor the wallet, so its not safe as well for the buyer which makes no sense on buying a wallet.

[adzino]

I am a little puzzled by this. Maybe someone has an idea.

A user was seeking to buy old Ethereum addresses that have had more than +1000 transactions.
He was even willing to pay upfront before receiving the private keys, so long as the other trading partner is trustworthy.

Why would someone go to such length?
Is there value in our old addresses that we don't know about? Lol.

Very highly likely to gain airdrops. There are some airdrops that are given to addresses that are old and was active during certain period of time. The buyer probably hopes that the seller hasn't redeems/claimed those rewards. If the value of the rewards is more than what he is paying for the address, he doesn't lose anything. Just some quick bucks for him. I don't see any other reason. I am sure he wouldn't use it to store his coins since the original owner will also have access to the wallet.

[Mahanton]

I think they are doing it for some airdrops?
There are some projects who have qualifications on some addresses to be able to get some airdrops.
I'm not sure if it is worth it to buy such old Ethereum wallets not unless it is cheap.
I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

For sure the seller would really be still peeking with those address that had been sold and trying out to see if there's some funds that been credited or transferred to it which means that he could still make money but of course its already stealing.I dont know on what consideration the buyer do able to tolerate such risk as long it do goes in into the criteria on having 1000+ transactions inside it.
Im bit aware of those wants of these addresses. @OP, do you have idea on how much for a single address cost? (I do have some of these addresses which had been long time not been used but does have
those no. transactions had been mentioned.) hehe.

My nearest presumption will really be speaking about airdrops just like on what been said above.There might be already some qualifications for that one? Possibly.

[Saisher]

I think they are doing it for some airdrops?
There are some projects who have qualifications on some addresses to be able to get some airdrops.
I'm not sure if it is worth it to buy such old Ethereum wallets not unless it is cheap.
I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

Yes I can confirm it they are doing this for airdrops I once stumble a project a few years where they only accept participants with numbers of transactions and number of years but some projects are also using wallets to scam people r hacking activities so the authorities will be diverted on who are the real owners of the wallet, so it's very risky to sell wallet it's like selling your identity too.

[AmoreJaz]

I think they are doing it for some airdrops?
There are some projects who have qualifications on some addresses to be able to get some airdrops.
I'm not sure if it is worth it to buy such old Ethereum wallets not unless it is cheap.
I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

Yes I can confirm it they are doing this for airdrops I once stumble a project a few years where they only accept participants with numbers of transactions and number of years but some projects are also using wallets to scam people r hacking activities so the authorities will be diverted on who are the real owners of the wallet, so it's very risky to sell wallet it's like selling your identity too.

people will go to this extent for something they thought they can gain from it. these days, i don't think airdrops are worth spending your time, but yeah, people are willing to join for some dusts. but i don't think it is safe to sell your old eth wallet, you may have transactions and addresses that may be compromised. we don't know the motive of the people who are holding airdrops why they want old addresses. they may have reasons but better secure your old addresses by not selling one.

[romero121]

I don't think it is for the purpose of airdrops. This looks like a way to fool the users. I've got similar experience with one of the P2P cryptocurrency trading platform. I got a buying order, and he stated he isn't willing to buy and just to know some information he have started the trade. It isn't possible to have conversation without a trade. He requested is there anyone who have got an account that have made 1000+, 5000+, 10k+ trades. Based on this I can provide payment just for providing trustworthy feedbacks. I started to brief him, just do the trade with an user and he'll give you trustworthy feedback depending on the transaction made. He isn't ready to accept, but looking for a way to trap others with fake trustworthy feedbacks. Same is here planned with the increased number of transactions.

[passwordnow]

I also don't know why they're asking for it but this thread is helpful and made me understand that it's just for the airdrops. Maybe this could also belong to the Service Discussion (Altcoins) section since it's about a used and empty old Ethereum wallet.

I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

That's the risk if you're the buyer and not really worth it unless you do trust the seller.

[PrivacyG]

Is there a chance that the person who is buying such an address is trying to fool some upcoming user into showing that they control a certain "old" address and hence attempt to gain the trust of the person in front?

It is what I suspect as well.  If you gain access to addresses that were used before in a ton of transactions, I suspect the buyer could be a bad actor using the address to provide false proof of past ownership.  Take my profile address for example.  Maybe years from now I will have thousands of transactions on it.  But if years from now I will not be using it anymore, someone could want to buy my private key to provide false proof that they are the 'old, real owner' of PrivacyG or PrivacyG themselves.  There are a lot of things to lie about once you have ownership of the address.

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Regards,
PrivacyG

[cryptoaddictchie]

I am also thinking if it is still safe after the seller will give the private keys because for sure the seller can still access it if ever they decided not to forget it totally.

Yes its not safe. Of course whatever the seller said baout the copy, possibly that he still have some access to that wallet private key no matter what he denied it.

So buying it still not worth it cause you might be able to get future airdrops with that wallet but the previous owner could still open it and get that instead of you.

[tbct_mt2]

I saw that thread too.

I think that user has demand to do his business that need to prove that he or his team is not a newbie in cryptocurrency. Old wallet, with many past transactions. I don't feel good intention to buy and use these wallets.

Probably to scam or to join bounties? I don't know bounties have too strict criteria to join like this.

[zasad@]

I am a little puzzled by this. Maybe someone has an idea.

A user was seeking to buy old Ethereum addresses that have had more than +1000 transactions.
He was even willing to pay upfront before receiving the private keys, so long as the other trading partner is trustworthy.

Why would someone go to such length?
Is there value in our old addresses that we don't know about? Lol.

How much money do they give for such addresses?
I wouldn't be interested in selling my old wallet for a couple of hundred dollars.
It could be a scam or this wallet will be used in a scam and then you will have problems because you sent money from this wallet to centralized services with KYC.

[Yaunfitda]

I remember back then when there was a user who is looking to buy old bitcoin addresses to claim CLAMS.

Anyhow, maybe the same here, could be airdrops as mentioned by others and to claim that, you need to have an old ETH address. So it's a win-win for those who are going to sell, those not used old addresses, and then the buyer will used it to claim airdrops but for sure he will be paying less money.

[electronicash]

i wanted to create a thread of the same topic and since i searched and saw this thread, i guess it wouldn't be so bad to just update this and ask something else.

recently there have been threads buying old eth wallets too.
if this is all about airdrop which the project only send to old eth wallets, how do we know which project is this?
maybe we will not missed this airdrop this time. anyone knew something?

[Dr.Osh]

I often see this in crypto groups on social media. the answer is that they are targeting the airdrop that can be obtained from the old wallet. However, until now I have not studied what kind of airdrop they want to claim. some airdrops I know of require some transactions on site, like on some DEXs, but sometimes they even want to buy the wallet even if they don't know what transactions were made. most likely the goal is an airdrop.