What is your oldest bitcoin transaction? Would you sign something to prove it?

[DaveF]

Just having a bit of dinner discussion with some friends about how long we have been in BTC and what we could prove or be willing to prove.

My oldest address is from mid 2010 but would not feel comfortable posting that address since it's still in use today. I do have an address from mid 2011 that had BTC0.0001 in and out of it so yeah that is a whatever kind of thing. That was actually what started the talk sine I noticed it received that tiny amount 6/20/2011 or 15 years ago today.

What about everyone else?

-Dave

[athanred]

What is your oldest bitcoin transaction?

Probably something from 2016, when I received 10k sats from 99bitcoins.com, and lost it to some scammy web wallet.

Would you sign something to prove it?

No, because I just generated some address from a web wallet, received it on-chain, and never saw it again. Maybe on my old, encrypted hard drive, there are some screenshots of it, but it is BIOS-encrypted, and I can no longer open it, to even see the address anymore. I can only scan the blockchain, and guess that one of these 10k outputs are mine, at that time I could locate it exactly, now I don't know, where it is.

Also, there were times, when SIGAINT e-mails were working. Today, they don't, so I can no longer prove, that I received anything.

but would not feel comfortable posting that address since it's still in use today

I still have some addresses from 2019, when I bought some BTCs from ATMs. But I don't use these old addresses anymore, because they were generated by these ATMs. But I still have the private keys to that. Again: signing it would be unwise, because it could prove, what I bought or sold, and when, because of some address reuse.

Anyway, stories like that are fun to read, but dangerous to share. And some of them can be easily faked, for example by finding brainwallets, and signing messages from addresses, which are known to be broken, to pretend, that someone is an early adopter.

[aoluain]

I can remember back to Christmas day 2016 having a chat (again) about Bitcoin with a family member
who had previously already been in Bitcoin. I was finally persuaded to get into it but while still skeptical
I committed to a whole $100 worth of a purchase. AFAIK that purchase happened in the first week in
January 2017.

I gave the family member the FIAT and they bought the Bitcoin. I actually cant remember what wallet I
used back then, I think it was an EXODUS wallet or maybe an Electrum one. I still have all the seeds
and passwords saved so I would have to go looking, they are not in use so I could post something if I
went digging - but yea its not as exciting as others who were in years prior like the above!

[sergiorus]

I wish I had something flex-worthy to share in this thread, but my first transaction was only somewhere in early 2017 (a few months before I registered on this forum) and the funniest thing is I couldn't prove even that because for a long time I just held it on Bittrex, after purchasing it on Localbitcoins and transfering to Bittrex, and both of those no longer exist...

[DaveF]

I wish I had something flex-worthy to share in this thread, but my first transaction was only somewhere in early 2017 (a few months before I registered on this forum) and the funniest thing is I couldn't prove even that because for a long time I just held it on Bittrex, after purchasing it on Localbitcoins and transfering to Bittrex, and both of those no longer exist...

Not even flex worthy. Just kind of an interesting discussion.

Outside of the 2 addresses I mentioned in the OP, there are probably hundreds of addresses I used over the years that would be just about impossible to prove I owned.
So if I had ever actually spent the funds from the 2010 and still did not want to show it was mine and lost the private key from the 2011 one I would be in 2014 or 15 range.

*Since someone asked no I have never spent anything from the 2010 address it just has about 60 smallish inputs. Not even enough BTC to come after me for a $5 ($8 with inflation) wrench attack. But I just don't want it out there.

-Dave

[Delaforetnoire]

What about everyone else?

Back in October 2016: Worked on KTN token and received a payment of 0.2 BTC for it.

Later, there were also transactions related to bounties or presales, which brought back those old memories. Those wallets used for the transactions are no longer in use, as newer wallets are now preferred for exchange compatibility and security reasons.

I don't have such an old history like you, but I remember talking to friends about 2016.

[BlackHatCoiner]

First transaction was on February or March 2020. I remember I used a faucet to receive ~1,000 sats, to test Electrum wallet. I burned them on mining fees. Then, when I felt comfortable, I sent over my $400, which was all my savings back then, to a trader I found online for bitcoin. It was peer-to-peer trade with no escrow, and he could have easily scammed me, but he didn't.

A new journey began at that day.