Why would someone send 4 BTC to Satoshi (Genesis block)

[adaseb]

Just wondering why someone would send 4BTC to the Genesis block which is over $75K.

Here is the transaction
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/transactions/btc/6805b175260c47549995c3ff19c3c51596651c26269e9f1b31c243986433a0b7

I understand many want to send a small amount so they can get a piece of history on the block chain but sending over $75K which is pretty much a burn address since most likely it will never get spent is kind of crazy.

Why do you think they did this?

[Charles-Tim]

That should not be a mistake but to burn it. Every bitcoin burned adds its value to the remaining coins in circulation.

[mk4]

Idunno, let's probably not underestimate how rich some of the earliest bitcoin whales can be especially when bought in the single digits or cheaper. I totally doubt this was a mistake.

[pooya87]

It is possible that they messed up and were trying to actually send the 0.00525500BTC amount to that address which is about 90 bucks but they set that amount to the change and the change (4BTC) to Genesis address which already contains 22.57BTC!

P.S. coins sent there are not burnt though, Satoshi may some day decide to spend them

[Kakmakr]

At first, when I read the "subject" of this thread... I thought it might be older transactions...from the early days.... but I checked out the transaction and it was done on the 8th of January 2023. So someone send $75,424.64 worth of bitcoins to Satoshi's Genesis block.

The only logical reason for this in my mind, is this : The person must have made huge profits from Satoshi's technology... and he or she wants to show their appreciation to Satoshi for this. (Even though Satoshi has never used any of his coins and will most probably never spend the 4 bitcoins that was send to that address)

It is thus only a gesture to make a statement .....and not anything to do with the monetary value of those coins. (In a few years... those coins might rise to the Lazlo pizza level ....and people will make fun of this)  

[bitzizzix]

Well… maybe because the inactive Satoshi wallet address is the most well-known wallet address of all the wallets and maybe because people, lots of people, are actively monitoring them to see if any of their coins are being moved.
or maybe as a sign of gratitude because the person gets a very big advantage.

[Cantsay]

I still can't fathom why someone will just want to throw away ~75k that's a whole lot of cash for someone to just dispose of. Even while I'm unable to think of why something like that was done I'm sure that the whoever did that must have a very good reason why such action was carried out. Perhaps it was just to burn it so that the amount of Bitcoin in circulation will be affected which in turn might affect the price of Bitcoin or maybe just to show appreciation to Satoshi since the it was sent to the satoshi's address. I don't think it was just a random mistake.

[ChiBitCTy]

Idunno, let's probably not underestimate how rich some of the earliest bitcoin whales can be especially when bought in the single digits or cheaper. I totally doubt this was a mistake.

This exactly. There's so many former bitcointalk forum users who hoarded a ton of bitcoin in the early days when it cost next to nothing, or was essentially free minus some basic computing power.  That four bitcoins sent to whomever it was, is likely a drop in the bucket for them.  They wanted to do something kind of cool as well as decrease the pool of available bitcoin which makes all other bitcoin more valuable.

[BlackBoss_]

Thinking about it simply as why people sent merit to satoshi in bitcointalk. The account has no longer been active many years but merit does not stop coming to it.

It can be same reasons to send BTC to Genesis address that belongs to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Sending to that Genesis address but it is a donation for everyone. 'They' donated about 25 BTC to everyone.

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

With how knowledgeable we all have become about bitcoin, I do not think this is a mistake.

There are times when I often feel that, if I managed to become super rich through cryptocurrencies, I would locate Satoshi bitcoin address and send some bitcoins to him as my thank you gift to him for bringing to live, this innovation through which my financial life have changed from bad to good.
Maybe someone just beat me to that idea by doing it first, 

[slaman29]

When I first went to a crypto casino, I remember guys raining down 1 BTC every minute and just going on and on and on.

This means just giving everyone there randomly the BTC. I didn't get it at first. Why would a guy give away $600 a pop, over and over and over?

Then he explains when he was new, people did the same for him and that's how he got into crypto or he never would have.

This is not an accident

[Jating]

It's either the user:

1. accidentally send the wrong amount to the genesis block as we all know that everyone wants to be part of history by sending some change amount, but not this huge.

2. probably he is rich through bitcoin and wanted to send appreciation to the man himself, as his invention help him become a self made millionaire or even billionaire for that matter.

[pooya87]

Sending to that Genesis address but it is a donation for everyone. 'They' donated about 25 BTC to everyone.

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

That is when you actually "burn" coins or lose access to your keys, not when you send them to an address that can be spent some day if Satoshi comes back or decides to move those coins.

There are times when I often feel that, if I managed to become super rich through cryptocurrencies, I would locate Satoshi bitcoin address and send some bitcoins to him as my thank you gift to him for bringing to live, this innovation through which my financial life have changed from bad to good.

It is best to donate them to someone in need, a poor person who is homeless or something like that!

[hyudien]

At first, when I read the "subject" of this thread... I thought it might be older transactions...from the early days.... but I checked out the transaction and it was done on the 8th of January 2023. So someone send $75,424.64 worth of bitcoins to Satoshi's Genesis block.

The only logical reason for this in my mind, is this : The person must have made huge profits from Satoshi's technology... and he or she wants to show their appreciation to Satoshi for this. (Even though Satoshi has never used any of his coins and will most probably never spend the 4 bitcoins that was send to that address)

It is thus only a gesture to make a statement .....and not anything to do with the monetary value of those coins. (In a few years... those coins might rise to the Lazlo pizza level ....and people will make fun of this)  

A guess that fits what I think is your statement. That person made a huge profit from Bitcoins and to show his gratitude he sent Bitcoins for free to the creator's wallet. Rather than that maybe as a form of gratitude for what he achieved from Bitcoin. This is not a mistake, but rather a way of expressing gratitude.

Whoever the person was and who knows what's behind the reason, he really did it in a way that was beyond anyone's expectations, no one thought he would think in that direction.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Why do you think they did this?

I don't know, but I don't think it was an accident. You really need to be irresponsible as fuck to not be cautious when spending 4+ BTC. Couldn't there be a new kind of Proof-of-Burn perhaps?

P.S. coins sent there are not burnt though

They are definitely not burned. Besides Satoshi spending them (which, between us, I don't find it a wise thing to do), the public key of that address is known. It's entirely possible someone spends that output, once the underlying cryptography is weak enough.

[NeuroticFish]

I agree with @pooya87 on this.
I see no good reason to send 4 BTC to Satoshi and some 100$ to a change address. I think that whoever did that wanted to send the 100$ to Satoshi and 4 BTC to self.

Of course, making a donation to everybody is another not-too-bad scenario, i.e. somebody with lots of money wanted to make every bitcoiner a bit richer with this, or at least Satoshi if he ever comes back.
Still, the scenario with the error makes more sense to me...

[buwaytress]

Sending to that Genesis address but it is a donation for everyone. 'They' donated about 25 BTC to everyone.

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

That's how proud I feel about myself each time I burn fees to consolidate, or to send people Bitcoin I know they may never use. A small amount I sent to my kid is lost forever, that's my personal record for "burning" and address (I say small but it was the value years ago, I remind him every now and then how much he lost in today's value haha).

[casinotester0001]

P.S. coins sent there are not burnt though, Satoshi may some day decide to spend them

Would it be ok if Satoshi spent them   (He's not knowing why the sender did it.)


or .... this one is better .....

Satoshi sent these 4 BTC to himself  

[pooya87]

It's entirely possible someone spends that output, once the underlying cryptography is weak enough.

In my opinion there is a good chance that bitcoin would die if something like that ever happened before fully switching to another algorithm and making the previous one obsolete.

[Lucius]

If I would like to look at this situation from a slightly funny angle, then I would say that this "donation" is perhaps part of some kind of strange idea that stems from the fact that there are people who think that Satoshi will appear one day and that he will share his Bitcoins with everyone who sent something to his address - let's call it "future Satoshi Bitcoin doubler"