Buying historically significant bitcoins?

[Bizmark13]

Is there any way to buy bitcoins (or fractions of a bitcoin) that are historically significant?

e.g. Satoshi's bitcoins, coins belonging to the last 50 BTC block or the first 25 BTC block, the coins that were part of Karpeles' 424,242 BTC transaction in 2011, or the coins that were exchanged during memorable moments in Bitcoin's history such as laszlo's pizza, etc.

I would think that if Bitcoin were to succeed (if it hasn't indeed already done so), historically significant bitcoins such as these would fetch a premium since they would be treated as rare/scarce "collectibles".

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[cyberpinoy]

Unless anew unfolding of events I would guess that since it all digital and no real actual tangible coins in our hands. So I would think,  no there are not sentimental valued coins out there. Maybe Just maybe a wallet address could be considered something valuable, but as of right now a wallet address is only as valuable as the digital number of bitcoins it  holds.

[fryarminer]

You could buy a 1st Gen Casacius coin. I've got one but I aint sellin it! :p

I'm not smart enough to know if a coin from Karpeles or Satoshi can be marked clearly enough once it starts circulating around the blockchain - you could see its transction history I guess.

[Soros Shorts]

I think there is a problem with these kinds of collectibles - the more you transfer them the further away they are from the historical transaction and the lesser their collectible value. Kind of like the concept of tainted coins eventually cleansing themselves, but with the opposite effect in value.

[hyphymikey]

Unless these historically significant bitcoins were only one transaction away from origin, I wouldn't consider them special.

I'm sure some will be worth something, just like fresh coins will be worth more in the future (untainted coins). But they will only be worth by "how cool" your buyer thinks they are. Once you sold those coins they would be one more transaction away from the cool factor, unless the buyer trusted you and you just gave him the keys and no transaction was needed.

[TrailingComet]

Technically speaking, you can't buy one particular bitcoin. All you can be reasonably certain about is the bitcoin was part of a historical transaction

[DannyHamilton]

At the technical level, there is no such thing as "a bitcoin", so it wouldn't be possible to buy a particular bitcoin (or a particular set of bitcoins), since they don't actually exist.

What does exist is a transaction output with a value assigned to it.

This means that the best you can hope for is to own the private key associated with an address that one of these "special" outputs was encumbered with.  Of course, if you purchase a private key from someone, there is no way to know if they will keep a copy of it, and then spend the output at some time in the future.

The next best thing you can hope for is to have a transaction sent to you that can trace some specified percentage of its value back to one of these "special" outputs through the chain of transactions that provided that value.

[bitcoinmining]

This sounds like new generation collection: Historically Significant Bitcoins! Another area for smart sellers, why not? It's possible to sell with that tag to n00b, newbie Bitcoin buyers...

[548845]

YES, there is important Bitcoins out there.
They are found here: https://blockchain.info/block/00000000d1145790a8694403d4063f323d499e655c83426834d4ce2f8dd4a2ee

AFAIK those are the only 10 coins that actually left Satoshi's possession.
I wouldn't mind having a fraction of those 
Their value is probably worth x1000 times more as there will NEVER be another transaction from Satoshi.
If there is ever another transaction from Satoshi that means Bitcoin is about to crash badly.

[TinEye]

You can ask for the private key of one of those unmoved blocks, but there is always the risk that the original owner hasn't destroyed it after giving it to you.

[Lauda]

I think there is a problem with these kinds of collectibles - the more you transfer them the further away they are from the historical transaction and the lesser their collectible value. Kind of like the concept of tainted coins eventually cleansing themselves, but with the opposite effect in value.

This. With Bitcoin it is hard to really know where stuff originated from, the more it moves the worse it gets and they would lose value like said.
I'd recommend buying limited edition physical coins.

[thompete]

Is there anyway to actually see if the bitcoins in your wallet are from the first block? like the real money having dates on them?
I guess, the only way to buy would be to obtain the private keys from people who mined at first and still have them intact in their wallets .

[TinEye]

Is there anyway to actually see if the bitcoins in your wallet are from the first block? like the real money having dates on them?
I guess, the only way to buy would be to obtain the private keys from people who mined at first and still have them intact in their wallets .

They can be tracked through the blockchain. Somebody did a analysis on the block which satoshi moved sometime back.

[Q7]

Is there a date stamping mark that appear on every coin? Other than the blockchain transaction history would there be any other  significant marking on the coin itself??? Rather than coins i would rather collect historically significant addresses

[Febo]

Maybe you think of virgin Bitcoins?

[allthingsluxury]

I think an early Casacius coin would have value, but a BTC itself. I don't think would have any numismatic value.

[DannyHamilton]

Is there anyway to actually see if the bitcoins in your wallet are from the first block? like the real money having dates on them?

The "bitcoins" from the first block were never spent (and because of the way the protocol was written, can never be spent).

You could track the value of outputs accessible from your wallet back through the transactions that provided that value until you reach the blocks where that value originated.  In many cases you are likely to have value that traces back to MANY different blocks, so what you'd end up with is a percentage of value from each block.

Is there a date stamping mark that appear on every coin?

No.  There are no actual "coins" therefore there is nothing to apply a date stamp to.

Other than the blockchain transaction history would there be any other  significant marking on the coin itself???

No.  The blockchain transaction history is the only thing that exists. There are no "actual" coins to mark.

Would be Nice if Coins when they were minted had a mint #

There are no coins to give a mint # to.  However, there are blocks that provide the initial value. That value is passed on through transactions and can be traced in percentages to unspent outputs.  You could theoretically compute the percentage of value from each block number.

but as we all know an average bitcoin is made up from many transactions. Maybe the wallet could have a feature where you can what coins your coin is made up from. IE you have a Bitcoin QT wallet with 1.42 BTC, there could be a tab where it shows you in a pie chart what coin#'s make up your coin.  No real reason to do this except bring a collectors value to it, people trading coins for coins to get a full # coin.

There is no way to distill the value associated with outputs.  As the coins are traded, they become more and more diluted.  While it might be possible to "combine" value traced back to a specific block, there isn't any way to "remove" the value that comes from other blocks.

Example:

You could receive a 25 BTC transaction that gets half its value from a recent block (block A), and one fourth of its value from each of the next two blocks (blocks B & C).
Then you could receive another 25 BTC transaction that gets half its value from from block A, and the other half of its value from block B.

Your wallet now has 50 BTC two outputs.
25 BTC (50% of the wallet balance) comes from block A
18.75 BTC (37.5% of the wallet balance) comes from block B
6.25 BTC (12.5% of the wallet balance) comes from block C

It is not possible for you to send away any of the value that was provided from block B or block C without also simultaneously sending away at least some of the balance from block A.

If you try to send away any value from block C by spending the second transaction that you received, then you'll be sending value from block A as well since that transaction contains 12.5 BTC from block A.
If you try to send away any value from block B, your only choices are to spend either one or both of the transactions that you received and they each contain 12.5 BTC from block A.

[FUR11]

I guess at one time someone wanted to buy the coinbase (block reward) for the last 50 BTC block (or 25 BTC block, I can't really remember) from whoever was going to mine that block. Does anyone know what came of this story? It's quite a lot money given Bitcoin's current value to buy and hold the block reward just for sentimental values.

[botany]

Bitcoin as such is fungible, but some people do like to treat it as a collectible.

Freshly mined bitcoins command a premium. One reason could be that they are definitely not tainted by any criminal action. They were even sold in the bitcointalk marketplace.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=640036.0

[wunkbone]

I don't think it is wise to participate in a market (either buying or selling) where a premium is being paid because the inputs of a transaction can be traced back to some historical event. Having such a market threatens the fungiblity of Bitcoin.

If there is a premium for certain inputs that have historical meaning then there could potentially be a discount for inputs that have a certain level of "taint" from a controversial transaction (for example a theft or a hack)

[Ron~Popeil]

Value is a relative thing. I would not pay over market price for a "special" bitcoin myself, but I can see a certain coolness factor to the idea. If I happened to receive one with significance I would probably stick it in cold storage.

[bitcoinmining]

Maybe you think of virgin Bitcoins?

Virgins are always attractive for men, yeah sure he's thinking about it 

[TinEye]

I think in the future there may be pools which charge a little extra and awards you the mined block. You can then keep it as a souvenir.

[turvarya]

Bitcoin are just not coins, you could destroy the link to a significant event in just a few steps:

Address A has 50 significant bitcoin
Address A send 50 bitcoin to address B
Address C send 50 bitcoin to address B
Address B send 50 Bitcoin to address D
Address B send 50 Bitcoin to address E

Now answer me this: In which address are this significant Bitcoin?

[raveldoni]

Technically speaking, you can't buy one particular bitcoin. All you can be reasonably certain about is the bitcoin was part of a historical transaction

Exactly , well said. Thus the OP proposition doesn't add up.

[DannyHamilton]

Bitcoin are just not coins, you could destroy the link to a significant event in just a few steps:

Address A has 50 significant bitcoin
Address A send 50 bitcoin to address B
Address C send 50 bitcoin to address B
Address B send 50 Bitcoin to address D
Address B send 50 Bitcoin to address E

Now answer me this: In which address are this significant Bitcoin?

That depends.

Did Address B have any other bitcoins there before the 50 BTC were sent from A and C?
Did Address D have any other bitcoins there before the 50 BTC where sent from B?
Did Address E have any other bitcoins there before the 50 BTC where sent from B?
Did the transaction that sent to address D spend the output from the transaction that sent 50 BTC from A to B? Or did it spend the output from the transaction that sent 50 BTC from C to B? Or did it spend both outputs? Or did it spend neither output? I'd need to see the actual transaction in the blockchain to answer your question.

Depending on exactly how the transactions were created (which could be traced through the public blockchain), it it possible that address D (or address E) have 100% of the value from the significant bitcoins.  It is also possible that the value is split up in percentages between addresses B, D, and E.

[Thyaga]

Technically speaking, you can't buy one particular bitcoin. All you can be reasonably certain about is the bitcoin was part of a historical transaction

Exactly , well said. Thus the OP proposition doesn't add up.

Still, being part of a historical transaction would be quite cool!