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Sleeping beauty Bitcoin wallets wake up after 14 years to the tune of $2B

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189 points aorloff | 4 comments | 04 Jul 25 18:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.607s | source
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Synaesthesia ◴[05 Jul 25 05:50 UTC] No.44470362[source]▶
I was also around when bitcoin just started out. Many people wanted it to be a global revolution in finance.

But instead it turned into a game of "hodl" to get rich.

Scams were openly perpetrated in the forums.

I became completely disillusioned. What exactly does bitcoin offer the world today?

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karel-3d ◴[05 Jul 25 07:10 UTC] No.44470694[source]▶
You can get rich by... having it

Sort of like gold I guess.

I have never figured out "lightning network", their "solution" for payments. (bitcoin payments are so impractical that they have a different, separate system to use for actual payments, that works completely differently.) Seems very convoluted. I need to pay a huge fee just to make a channel so I can receive anything? And there is something about liquidity? I implemented bitcoin stuff and still cannot figure lightning out.

bitcoin is mainly for buying it and looking at a chart.

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1. LikesPwsh ◴[05 Jul 25 08:58 UTC] No.44471214[source]▶
In the long term everything goes to zero, so an asset that pays no dividends but has significant storage costs isn't much good for investment.

Bitcoin holders as a group are constantly losing money by definition. Some of them cash out at a profit, I suppose.

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2. FabHK ◴[05 Jul 25 11:40 UTC] No.44472039[source]▶
> Bitcoin holders as a group are constantly losing money by definition

Modulo market cap representing unrealized PnL, but yes otherwise. Miners and exchanges take a good cut.

3. hx8 ◴[05 Jul 25 16:35 UTC] No.44473846[source]▶
I'm trying to figure out what the significant storage costs for bitcoin are. It's a bit higher than a Robin Hood stock because it costs fees when buying/selling, but it's significantly lower than gold/silver which really require some investment in physical security or a vaulting service.
4. ahazred8ta ◴[05 Jul 25 18:01 UTC] No.44474403[source]▶
It's the miners who are hemorrhaging hard currency. It's currently costing $8-10 billion per year to keep the BTC blockchain alive, but blockchain fees are paid when transacting, not when HODLing, so it's not a storage cost.