You find all of Satoshi's Private Keys in a Storage Unit or some such? Now What?

[Searing]

I had a dream about this once. I found all of Satoshi's Private Keys Printed out in a suitcase in a storage unit I bought in the dream.

I was a nice guy...and in the dream did see he had passed away. Thus the storage unit sale.

The dream ended and I was like WTF? How do I even use these w/o crashing the system/price etc? Then I woke up.

So comment on how you would approach finding Satoashi's entire hoard of btc private keys....could you even do anything with these most

famous of addresses? Moving them would drive the BTC world insane..if as a test move of $1 off one of them.

thoughts on what you would do with such a delightful endeavor, while you also try to remain anonymous as well.

fun problem

comment below

[Satofan44]

Send them all to an irrecoverable location. It could be an address with an incorrect public key or I could use OP_RETURN.

Anonymity preserved? Check.

Market collapse prevented? Check.

Quantum computing risk with satoshi's coins resolved? Check.

Supply reduced? Check.

Greed suppressed? Check.

Living in fear forever avoided? Check.

Funny little dream. With my resolution strategy everyone wins.  
I don't need money that I didn't work for. Poorer people or those whose life is at least partially controlled by greed may handle it differently. Thoughts?

[Mia Chloe]

I had a dream about this once. I found all of Satoshi's Private Keys Printed out in a suitcase in a storage unit I bought in the dream.
I was a nice guy...and in the dream did see he had passed away. Thus the storage unit sale.
The dream ended and I was like WTF? How do I even use these w/o crashing the system/price etc? Then I woke up.

Well sincerely speaking thats a hell big of a dream. You would basically have enough coins to cause a price shift in the market. Yeah I know Satoshi store the coins across different keys but the fact is getting a hold of a decent number of those keys simply would add up to a couple hundred bitcoins or even more.

Well if I found such number of keys I'll probably run a campaign here like Foxpup has been doing for years as my way to give back to the community.

The dream ended and I was like WTF? How do I even use these w/o crashing the system/price etc? Then I woke up.

If your dreams do come true remember me as an anonymous friend.

[Searing]

Send them all to an irrecoverable location. It could be an address with an incorrect public key or I could use OP_RETURN.

Anonymity preserved? Check.

Market collapse prevented? Check.

Quantum computing risk with satoshi's coins resolved? Check.

Supply reduced? Check.

Greed suppressed? Check.

Living in fear forever avoided? Check.

Funny little dream. With my resolution strategy everyone wins.  
I don't need money that I didn't work for. Poorer people or those whose life is at least partially controlled by greed may handle it differently. Thoughts?

Not sure if I'm morally strong enough not to move at least 1 coin out and back just to mess with the world.

On the other hand, I see no way you could keep the coins...even with proof Satoshi had passed....finder's fee maybe?

Go Fund Me in reverse? Send me some BTC dust for me to 'burn' all these coins?

Kinda amazing how many different ways this could all go...would make a great movie (if that happens give me credit by the by like the HODL guy on here)

hurts my brain thinking about it

I 'suppose' you could put them all etched in metal with a time capsule a very very public one that is unlikely to be forgotten about and just kinda 'slip' these in

like a 100-200 year time bomb for the future? Damn, that would be full 'dr. evil' stuff there..

[adaseb]

There is not much you can do and actually sell those bitcoins before certain people would get curious and want to chat with you. You wouldnt want that type of publicity because your safety most likely would be in jeopardy since you would be a billionaire.

Only thing you can do is perhaps, enter a big short and move some of the coins to any exchange address and make the market think you are going to market dump the coins. And you would close your short once the panic died down. Then you can send all those coins to a burn address, right before opening a long position. Only way you can profit off those keys.

Nice dream you had at least.

[stackerlabsdev]

I had a dream about this once. I found all of Satoshi's Private Keys Printed out in a suitcase in a storage unit I bought in the dream.

I was a nice guy...and in the dream did see he had passed away. Thus the storage unit sale.

The dream ended and I was like WTF? How do I even use these w/o crashing the system/price etc? Then I woke up.

So comment on how you would approach finding Satoashi's entire hoard of btc private keys....could you even do anything with these most

famous of addresses? Moving them would drive the BTC world insane..if as a test move of $1 off one of them.

thoughts on what you would do with such a delightful endeavor, while you also try to remain anonymous as well.

fun problem

comment below

I’d burn them and let things be. Those coins will never bring you peace.

[ABCbits]

There is not much you can do and actually sell those bitcoins before certain people would get curious and want to chat with you. You wouldnt want that type of publicity because your safety most likely would be in jeopardy since you would be a billionaire.

Only thing you can do is perhaps, enter a big short and move some of the coins to any exchange address and make the market think you are going to market dump the coins. And you would close your short once the panic died down. Then you can send all those coins to a burn address, right before opening a long position. Only way you can profit off those keys.

Nice dream you had at least.

FWIW, i expect centralized and regulated exchange would demand identity verification and possibility notify the government about deposit from address (that speculated owned by Satoshi).

[passwordnow]

I guess if those people who are capable of buying storage units or are fans of storage wars, they'll have an idea and will start the race of finding more storage units in hope of finding some good ones or has got private keys in it.

I’d burn them and let things be. Those coins will never bring you peace.

Why so? it will not give you peace at the start when you're trying to figure it out. But when you've realized how huge it is and could set you for life, you'll be stressed in a nice way of how figuring out good problems.

[aoluain]

Send them all to an irrecoverable location. It could be an address with an incorrect public key or I could use OP_RETURN.

Anonymity preserved? Check.

Market collapse prevented? Check.

Quantum computing risk with satoshi's coins resolved? Check.

Supply reduced? Check.

Greed suppressed? Check.

Living in fear forever avoided? Check.

Funny little dream. With my resolution strategy everyone wins.  
I don't need money that I didn't work for. Poorer people or those whose life is at least partially controlled by greed may handle it differently. Thoughts?

....or just burn the suitcase and those keys are gone forever!
Ok there could still be copies ^{highly unlikely though - its Satoshi we are talking about!}

So if I didnt have a conscience that I was about to plunder someone elses
property I think I too would consider the less well off population too - I'm not sure
how I would go about that though.

I wouldnt turn into a greedy capitalist mindset thats for sure. I would try to do some
good with those Bitcoin.

[ertil]

It could be an address with an incorrect public key or I could use OP_RETURN.

If someone is a miner, or a mining pool, then it can be done in a clear way, by sending coins as fees, and not claiming them in the coinbase transaction. Then, no OP_RETURN is needed, and no additional output needs to be created in any transaction. In that case, it is all about just changing one 64-bit number into a different value.

I think if people would ever want to implement Proof of Burn, or anything similar, then this is how it should be done.

Send me some BTC dust for me to 'burn' all these coins?

It is possible, and can be done in a trustless way. For example: if you want to send coins to a given destination (which can be OP_RETURN, but also any valid address as well), under a condition, that someone else will pay all needed fees, then you can sign a single coin with SIGHASH_SINGLE, combined with SIGHASH_ANYONECANPAY. Also, amount in a given destination can be bigger than you have, then it can form a trustless setup of "give me a coin, and I will return you more".

For example: Saint Wenhao has a known donation address bc1q8n5wdz4wdmpqvylz558s9nd3jzfhk0smfgl33qnqh8z7q0y2j28q8q2y5s. I have 50k sats. I can give him 100k sats, if he would pay all fees, and provide all needed coins.

Code:

decoderawtransaction 02000000000101b4583e838e8f8e506667e70fcc91475500b616aa59f80fe22527c3e84678ad310000000000fdffffff01a0860100000000002200203ce8e68aae6ec20613e2a50f02cdb190937b3e1b4a3f188260b9c5e03c8a928e02473044022076d101ff63cf9d571892bca5305bed74cd1e346490f670c0c24fb0d463c2e1d5022028c9de8f19f3ee6f89804d7cd1416fae72e0be2fa293b6a122d868912d6028dd832103f0b9aecd7bab4cda86a468124fce17ef41725473448c3a45e8a2cada4a0b788900000000
{
  "txid": "1b2d479a22531cfd08fc1f217d2512e0b853a498e7372c1fa2f7b9da2d10ac4f",
  "hash": "987902d40e179f6bfb2e8b602f9e0fd5f5ad42d41bc6d405a1b85ce65d3c0821",
  "version": 2,
  "size": 203,
  "vsize": 122,
  "weight": 485,
  "locktime": 0,
  "vin": [
    {
      "txid": "31ad7846e8c32725e20ff859aa16b600554791cc0fe76766508e8f8e833e58b4",
      "vout": 0,
      "scriptSig": {
        "asm": "",
        "hex": ""
      },
      "txinwitness": [
        "3044022076d101ff63cf9d571892bca5305bed74cd1e346490f670c0c24fb0d463c2e1d5022028c9de8f19f3ee6f89804d7cd1416fae72e0be2fa293b6a122d868912d6028dd83",
        "03f0b9aecd7bab4cda86a468124fce17ef41725473448c3a45e8a2cada4a0b7889"
      ],
      "sequence": 4294967293
    }
  ],
  "vout": [
    {
      "value": 0.00100000,
      "n": 0,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "0 3ce8e68aae6ec20613e2a50f02cdb190937b3e1b4a3f188260b9c5e03c8a928e",
        "desc": "addr(bc1q8n5wdz4wdmpqvylz558s9nd3jzfhk0smfgl33qnqh8z7q0y2j28q8q2y5s)#njcrvcxf",
        "hex": "00203ce8e68aae6ec20613e2a50f02cdb190937b3e1b4a3f188260b9c5e03c8a928e",
        "address": "bc1q8n5wdz4wdmpqvylz558s9nd3jzfhk0smfgl33qnqh8z7q0y2j28q8q2y5s",
        "type": "witness_v0_scripthash"
      }
    }
  ]
}

And in a similar way, instead of doubling the amount, all coins can be sent to just OP_RETURN, if someone needs that feature.

a time capsule a very very public one

This can be also done. Just use "<timestamp> OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY OP_DROP OP_TRUE" as your destination. For example: if you want to make a coin spendable after block number 1,000,000, you can use this:

Code:

decodescript 0340420fb17551
{
  "asm": "1000000 OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY OP_DROP 1",
  "desc": "raw(0340420fb17551)#t2zuzffl",
  "type": "nonstandard",
  "p2sh": "3BybAnKEjW8QwHokUJTXNWr2yqBnHxEBay",
  "segwit": {
    "asm": "0 006e74720951bd8bd4d281d930fae4ad4a32a8ae9b29242364d78e8eecf4fe86",
    "desc": "addr(bc1qqph8gusf2x7ch4xjs8vnp7hy449r929wnv5jggmy678gam85l6rqgajus9)#d8su5lyz",
    "hex": "0020006e74720951bd8bd4d281d930fae4ad4a32a8ae9b29242364d78e8eecf4fe86",
    "address": "bc1qqph8gusf2x7ch4xjs8vnp7hy449r929wnv5jggmy678gam85l6rqgajus9",
    "type": "witness_v0_scripthash",
    "p2sh-segwit": "3LadT4VY639W1eZbGDDf24Ln6gpqZo1Vnu"
  }
}

And then, just send them there: https://mempool.space/address/bc1qqph8gusf2x7ch4xjs8vnp7hy449r929wnv5jggmy678gam85l6rqgajus9

Only after block 1,000,000, anyone would be able to move them. So, it is possible to for example take a given coin, and give miners 1 BTC at a time, by sending it to locktime 2,000,000, then 2,000,001, then 2,000,002, and so on. Also, it is possible to make double-spending games, where people could decide to claim a smaller amount now, or a bigger amount later, and where claiming it, would invalidate all other transaction versions, so reward could be shared only once, because later, other pre-signed transactions would be invalid.

[Satofan44]

Not sure if I'm morally strong enough not to move at least 1 coin out and back just to mess with the world.

Well there is some fun in that. Sometimes chaos is fun too, it is not always malicious. 

On the other hand, I see no way you could keep the coins...even with proof Satoshi had passed....finder's fee maybe?

It is a difficult subject. How does someone prove that you are not Satoshi? Only you know for sure that you are not, everyone can not know this with that level of certainity.

Kinda amazing how many different ways this could all go...would make a great movie (if that happens give me credit by the by like the HODL guy on here)

Would be more interesting and entertaining than these who is Satoshi movies or articles.

....or just burn the suitcase and those keys are gone forever!
Ok there could still be copies ^{highly unlikely though - its Satoshi we are talking about!}

The problem with that solution is that it does not check all the boxes that I have mentioned. Since Satoshi had P2PK addresses, his pubkeys are exposed and there is a chance that quantum computers are eventually going to be able to reverse corresponding private keys.

I wouldnt turn into a greedy capitalist mindset thats for sure. I would try to do some
good with those Bitcoin.

There is good in that desire but it is not possible without doing massive harm to the overall Bitcoin market. The general sentiment around those coins is very touchy.

It could be an address with an incorrect public key or I could use OP_RETURN.

If someone is a miner, or a mining pool, then it can be done in a clear way, by sending coins as fees, and not claiming them in the coinbase transaction. Then, no OP_RETURN is needed, and no additional output needs to be created in any transaction. In that case, it is all about just changing one 64-bit number into a different value.

Wait, how does that work? Is this what you are trying to say: You don't claim the fees of the block that you mine even though they are part of the block and they end up being burned instead?

I think if people would ever want to implement Proof of Burn, or anything similar, then this is how it should be done.

I wish we had this already.

[stackerlabsdev]

I guess if those people who are capable of buying storage units or are fans of storage wars, they'll have an idea and will start the race of finding more storage units in hope of finding some good ones or has got private keys in it.

I’d burn them and let things be. Those coins will never bring you peace.

Why so? it will not give you peace at the start when you're trying to figure it out. But when you've realized how huge it is and could set you for life, you'll be stressed in a nice way of how figuring out good problems.

After you start moving coins, I’m almost sure people are going to start looking for you. If you play it well, it could turn out nicely, but if not…
Even with that big amount of money, you’re never really safe.

[neutr0n]

Satoshi doesn't have wallets like that. I think it would be more likely to come across an unformatted old laptop with Windows XP, Debian, or Windows Vista on it with lost private keys, but even that is very unlikely. I have a few wallets on my old laptops, which were fun to chase down. I can't imagine buying a random laptop or desktop system with Bitcoin private keys -- that would be highly unlikely, but you never know. I used to go to auctions in Ontario, and they sold suitcases and everything, and there were many laptops. I highly doubt, though, that someone would find anything, as Bitcoin wasn't that popular and still isn't popular to the point where everyone has it.

[jcojci]

Just keep it secret for a long time or spend some BTC to enjoy the money

That will make the world go insane and go crazy because you send BTC from the address that belongs to Satoshi. People will think that someone will sell all of BTC in that address and they will follow that.

Probably, I will search for P2P and split the money into small or medium parts and send it to the other wallet. Many ways that I may use to hide the detection, although I am not sure can do that.

The temptation to use BTC in that wallet can be bigger. So that will depend on how strong you hold yourself

[ertil]

Wait, how does that work? Is this what you are trying to say: You don't claim the fees of the block that you mine even though they are part of the block and they end up being burned instead?

Yes. For example: https://mempool.space/testnet4/block/0000000017dd3b2cbe5a7a74f59cf10b6635c90b89111a437a2da98ac1b9df74

If you count transaction fees, then they are higher than 9950 tBTC. But only this amount is claimed, so everything beyond it is just permanently burned. And if that miner would claim for example 50 tBTC, as usual, then additional 9950 tBTC could be permanently burned. You can run a regtest locally, and confirm it, if you want to.

This method is usually better than OP_RETURN, if it can be used, because then, there is simply no UTXO for burned coins. Then, you cannot say, that coins were burned in a particular "txid:vout", as you can do with every other OP_RETURN (and also, it takes less bytes, so you can fit more transactions in a given block).

I wish we had this already.

It can be introduced at any time. For example: if mining pools would decide to stop producing new coins since today, then it could be a perfect soft-fork. No OP_RETURN, no strange protocols, just changing one 64-bit number to another. It is even described by Peter Todd: https://petertodd.org/2016/forced-soft-forks

So can a block contain less than the subsidy? Yes! In fact, it’s completely valid for blocks to create no coins at all. This means we can soft fork in a new rule by changing the code to the following:

Code:

CAmount blockReward = nFees + GetBlockSubsidy(pindex->nHeight, chainparams.GetConsensus());
if (block.vtx[0].GetValueOut() > blockReward)
    return state.DoS(100,
                     error("ConnectBlock(): coinbase pays too much (actual=%d vs limit=%d)",
                           block.vtx[0].GetValueOut(), blockReward),
                           REJECT_INVALID, "bad-cb-amount");

if (pindex->nHeight > 600000 && block.vtx[0].GetValueOut() > nFees)
    return state.DoS(100,
                     error("ConnectBlock(): coinbase pays too much (actual=%d vs limit=%d)",
                           block.vtx[0].GetValueOut(), blockReward),
                           REJECT_INVALID, "bad-cb-amount");

In English:

• A block is invalid if:
• • It creates more than ((height / 210,000) * 50 bitcoins
• • After block 600,000 it creates any coins at all

Of course, getting a majority of hashing power to agree to this change might be rather difficult, but from a technical point of view, this is perfectly possible.

[Satofan44]

Probably, I will search for P2P and split the money into small or medium parts and send it to the other wallet. Many ways that I may use to hide the detection, although I am not sure can do that.

The risk from P2P in this scenario is much greater than from exchanges. You won't just be met with a single wrench, you will be met with the whole torture arsenal. Be careful of your wishes.

The temptation to use BTC in that wallet can be bigger. So that will depend on how strong you hold yourself

The downsides are not worth it. Free money always has big negative effects on you.

Yes. For example: https://mempool.space/testnet4/block/0000000017dd3b2cbe5a7a74f59cf10b6635c90b89111a437a2da98ac1b9df74

If you count transaction fees, then they are higher than 9950 tBTC. But only this amount is claimed, so everything beyond it is just permanently burned. And if that miner would claim for example 50 tBTC, as usual, then additional 9950 tBTC could be permanently burned. You can run a regtest locally, and confirm it, if you want to.

This method is usually better than OP_RETURN, if it can be used, because then, there is simply no UTXO for burned coins. Then, you cannot say, that coins were burned in a particular "txid:vout", as you can do with every other OP_RETURN (and also, it takes less bytes, so you can fit more transactions in a given block).

It is much better than OP_RETURN or the public key shenangigans, I just wasn't aware that it was possible to not claim the fees like this. Has this ever been done on mainnet? I would definitely go with this route if I found Satoshi's keys. 

I wish we had this already.

It can be introduced at any time. For example: if mining pools would decide to stop producing new coins since today, then it could be a perfect soft-fork. No OP_RETURN, no strange protocols, just changing one 64-bit number to another. It is even described by Peter Todd: https://petertodd.org/2016/forced-soft-forks

Thanks!

[ertil]

Has this ever been done on mainnet?

Of course. See: https://mempool.space/block/0000000000004c78956f8643262f3622acf22486b120421f893c0553702ba7b5

This block claimed 49.99999999 BTC, so it burned a single satoshi, and all transaction fees.

I would definitely go with this route if I found Satoshi's keys.

Yes. And it is even better, if you think, that in Satoshi's times, OP_RETURN had a different meaning (and "OP_TRUE OP_RETURN" was spendable), so if you just claim less coins than you could, then nobody would know, if coins were burned by Satoshi, burned by the miner, or if all of that was just a result of using some buggy mining pool.

Of course, there is one problem: it should be done in a one-at-a-time model (which means burning for example 50 coins per block). Because otherwise, other miners would have a huge incentive, to reorg the chain, and just claim the coins. In case of OP_RETURN, there is no such risk, but well, sending coins through fees, and burning them in that way, is more private, and was possible since 2009.

It can be introduced at any time.

More than that: one mining pool can decide to burn some coins, and other mining pools can decide to not do that. Because burning coins is easier, than making them out of thin air. And because making smaller blocks (for example with 1 MB witness) is possible, even if other pools are making blocks with 4 MB witness.

So, burning coins, and making small blocks, are changes, that can be done as no-forks. It is all about a miner, deciding to enforce some rules in produced blocks, while also accepting other blocks, which follow different rules.

[Cricktor]

Another, more "dramatic", example is block 501,726 where the miner, very likely by some sort of an error, didn't claim a single satoshi in his coinbase transaction. So, effectively 12.5BTC were burned as this block didn't contain any other transactions with possible transaction fees which the miner could've claimed.

Surrounding blocks of 501,726 had significant amounts of transactions and transaction fees which hints that above block was likely assembled with faulty software. At the price rate of Bitcoin in the winter rally of 2017 it would've been a costly statement when the burned coins of above block were actually deliberately burned. I don't know, only the miner knows and I haven't searched deeper about this particular block.

I found above example in the bottom Notes of this page https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/mining/block-reward/ where the block number has a number mix-up but the link points to the correct block.

[Patikno]

I can't imagine finding those private keys, and I don't think I could even dream like you. But if I could imagine it, I would use it as best I could, and I have two options. First, I would move to a country, that truly supports Bitcoin, and cooperate with them, or I would build a country, and use Bitcoin as legal tender. Second, I would use some of it for development regarding Bitcoin, especially for the development needed in this forum, I Would share it with pro-Bitcoin (or Bitcoin Maximalist) users, and especially with the forum users who have contributed greatly to Bitcoin. Well, those are some of my brief thoughts, I haven't really thought deeply enough, so there might be some mistakes in my thinking, Cmiiw.

[aoluain]

....or just burn the suitcase and those keys are gone forever!
Ok there could still be copies ^{highly unlikely though - its Satoshi we are talking about!}

The problem with that solution is that it does not check all the boxes that I have mentioned. Since Satoshi had P2PK addresses, his pubkeys are exposed and there is a chance that quantum computers are eventually going to be able to reverse corresponding private keys.

You are right - the most ethical thing to do would indeed be to send to an irrecoverable address

I wouldnt turn into a greedy capitalist mindset thats for sure. I would try to do some
good with those Bitcoin.

There is good in that desire but it is not possible without doing massive harm to the overall Bitcoin market. The general sentiment around those coins is very touchy.

If even 1 satoshi was moved from those wallets the markets would react negatively, but it
would only be short to medium term, the market would recover - eventually.

Even sending the contents of those wallets to a destructive address would spook the markets,
some people would understand what had happened and it would take an enormous amount
of explaining to try and bring some confidence back into the market immediately.