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

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191 points aorloff | 7 comments | 04 Jul 25 18:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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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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ducksinhats ◴[05 Jul 25 08:54 UTC] No.44471196[source]▶
>What exactly does bitcoin offer the world today?

I can tell you down to the day how many bitcoin there will be decades from now.

Can you do the same for any fiat currency for next week?

It offers stability and a mathematical escape from very fallible humans controlling monetary systems.

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lolc ◴[05 Jul 25 09:07 UTC] No.44471269[source]▶
Funny thing is, we don't know how many keys are lost. They say it's deflationary, and I say it's deflating to zero through key attrition. And people pay for burning electricity meanwhile. Weird game.
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kragen ◴[05 Jul 25 09:30 UTC] No.44471367[source]▶
We know it's not a large fraction, or anyway wasn't a large fraction a year ago, because the fraction of all mined Bitcoin that hasn't moved in the last year is only about 25%.
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1. throw101010 ◴[05 Jul 25 12:37 UTC] No.44472385[source]▶
Even if it was known and it did tend to zero I don't see the issue, Bitcoin is divisible, almost infinitely if you count L2s system (e.g. Lightning Network operates on a millistaoshi base unit instead of satoshi). Inaccessible bitcoins mean that the accessible ones are more rare so in a way it benefits other holders this way.

They also serve the network as a form of security bounty, let's say tomorrow we discover a way to break encryption "soon" pepople will be provided with a path to safer addresses but these old addresses, the ones for which a public key is known, act as an incentive to look for such security flaws.

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2. wqaatwt ◴[05 Jul 25 15:59 UTC] No.44473620[source]▶
Point is that it encourages hoarding money instead of engaging in anything that’s productive. Technical issues are secondary.
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3. throw101010 ◴[05 Jul 25 18:50 UTC] No.44474698[source]▶
Nobody prevents you from spending and replacing bitcoins, besides maybe the governments that insist on taxing smaller transactions as if it wasn't a currency.

You should ask them why they've generated about 58 million millionaires and 2,700 billionaires worldwide. That's some actual "hoarding" you should be concerned about, instead of concern trolling about Bitcoin.

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4. wqaatwt ◴[05 Jul 25 19:37 UTC] No.44474982{3}[source]▶
> Nobody prevents you from spending..bitcoins

Well besides common sense.

If you own a deflationary asset/currency which is guaranteed to appreciate as long as the economy is growing (well it wouldn’t if btc became a global currency but that’s another matter) there is no reason for you to invest into anything unless it offers a disproportionately high return (or buy goods/services now if you can delay buying them)

It would just reduce risk tolerance for investors and increase the real cost of borrowing significantly. That’s how deflationary currencies work (we know that based on several hundreds years worth of empirical evidence).

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5. kragen ◴[05 Jul 25 19:47 UTC] No.44475042{3}[source]▶
It sounds like you aren't familiar with the anti-deflation argument. I've summarized it in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44471609, which you will probably want to read.
6. throw101010 ◴[05 Jul 25 20:29 UTC] No.44475302{4}[source]▶
Did you miss the word "replace" that you have removed in your quote?

None of what you said applies to what I have suggested.

7. satyrun ◴[05 Jul 25 20:50 UTC] No.44475435{4}[source]▶
Not to mention you can't have a robust credit market built on top of a deflationary currency.

Imagine you take out a 30 year mortgage in 2025 with 12 periodic payments of .01 BTC a year.

Imagine offering a 10 year bond that will make quarterly payments of .01 BTC. What is the price of this bond? It is just a meaningless question practically.