My theory is that a hacker gained access to a whale's account and didn't have a way to monetize his crime. So he did this for "bragging rights."
New theory: A jilted, but crypto-savvy, lover finds their ex's Binance password -- and the perfect way to hurt them.
(I said it was a new theory, I didn't say it was a good theory.)
The best way to share a dollar with everyone is to burn it.
Could this be a "happy 15th birthday bitcoin!" ?
Block 824513 was mined on Jan 5, 2024 7:00 PM UTC [1]
Block 0 was mined on Jan 3, 2009 6:15 PM UTC [2]
Delta is almost exactly 15 years.
Someone who is grateful for Bitcoin celebrates by provably and forever shrinking the overall supply by BTC 26.9 (coinbase of block 0, the addie the coins were sent to, is unspendable by design) thereby making every other Bitcoins out there a tiny bit more valuable.
[1] https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/block/824513
[2] https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/block/0
[EDIT]: as nullc correctly pointed out somewhere else in this thread, these BTC 26.9 actually can be spent if you happen to have the private key to block 0 (Satoshi, assuming he's still alive, would).
Only the coinbase (the block reward) of block 0 can't be spent by design.
So this now looks like a "thank you Satoshi on Bitcoin's 15th" and not a provable way to shrink the supply.
BTW, beyond mass media claims, the top Satoshi "archeologist" is Sergio Lerner, on a series of articles that go deep (in the hacker sense) [1] you can see the list on his blog but some examples are: "A New Mystery in Patoshi Timestamps" (2020) [2] and "The Patoshi Mining Machine" [3]. Many previous articles recommended.
There is an speculation that Satoshi himself is "just" dead.
[2] https://bitslog.com/2020/06/22/a-new-mystery-in-patoshi-time...
[3] https://bitslog.com/2020/08/22/the-patoshi-mining-machine/
Many of us have to work for decades to gather this amount of money, if even possible. Not even taking in account that we need to spend most of it to go through this amount of time.
Alternative theory, it was simply a mistake.
Party A explains how to send bitcoin to them but used a well known wallet address in their documentation/guide (Satoshi's).
Party B didn't use Party A's address and committed a bad case of copy-pasta.
It's not unheard of for funds to be missent to an address that was in the senders clipboard for some other reason, though the amount is more remarkable.
It's also not particularly remarkable to send small amounts to that address-- its been done many times-- and it's not unheard of for people to make errors in the amounts they pay.
Elsewhere I've advanced a couple more complex theories which probably fail occam's razor relative to simple error. You may find them fun to contemplate: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5480574.msg63449574#...
I doubt this was accident. There are plausible reasons someone might want to burn crypto. Smart contracts often send coins to 0x0 to destroy them for a variety of reasons. On Ethereum the 0x0 address holds many millions in ETH and various other assets; it's built into the design of some tokens to make deflationary assets.
Weird flex but ok
Edit: yeah I know this is just a meme but that's the only reaction I have to wasting so much money.
People who lost money with cryptos through fat finger, wrong addresses, lost private key, frauds, exchange bankrupts are countless.
Probably you could discover who did this by backtracking where did news first appear. Sounds like marketing stunt.
A good way to burn Bitcoins. Most probably Satoshi will never ever move them.
This is the absolute of virtuality - everything is letters and numbers on a screen, but you still don’t have any spoon, Neo, because there is no spoon at all.
Yep, fingers are fat for sure, but the sense is different, it's a kind of fat greasy meat fingers.
Probably this is Craig Wright. He will use this transaction as yet another "incontrovertible" proof that he is Satoshi
Fat finger. Or a background story that would make an awsome movie.
What a waste. The majority of people on this planet have a low enough income to be able to retire comfortably with a payout of that size.
Any theories or context known?
edit: Wiling to bet on advertisement for Bitcoin ETF launch
The most likely explanation is that this is a sacrifice (from Merriam-Webster: “to suffer loss of, give up, renounce, injure, or destroy especially for an ideal, belief, or end).
Idealists will have an easier time understanding what motivates such actions.
### target wallet address
### remember to replace with your own before sending coins!
What means dead wallet? Might it be artificial supply limitation?
My speculation is that an investment / hedge fund intern mistakenly sent one of their clients money to this wallet
People who search for "my QR code" also searched for: "my bitcoin address".
Is January 5th a day of relevance in Bitcoin's history? Could it be an homage of some kind?
What if Satoshi is alive and well; is actually a person and not some government agency;and wants this deposit to be a show of good Faith that BTC is it's finally becoming the new third leg of currency The digital gold that backs all crypto?
somebody has shorted btc and sent this transaction hoping the crowd goes crazy 'satoshi is back, now he'll dump all his bitcoins, SELL!!1!'
didn't work.
because anybody can send money to any address, doesn't prove a thing
It sounds like just a burning
Is bitcoin still a thing? Is the fad over already? Has anyone found any use for it except making money exploiting people's greed with the promise that you will get rich just buying a digital token?
Oops, help! Can I reverse the transaction?? I'm new to this.ヾ(´･ ･｀｡)ノ
The difference between burning a million dollars and a million dollars of Bitcoin? One of those simply gets printed back into existence when it's convenient to someone else's whim.
help to establish Binance as a leader in the cryptocurrency industry that supports the early pioneers of bitcoin. Making a donation in Satoshi's name may be seen as a way to honor the creator of bitcoin
I read on twitter a theory about this having to do with a Satoshi doxxing event [1]
[1]
https://x.com/attorneyjeremy1/status/1743842422285562336?s=2...
Wow, even crypto crimes have gone down bad. Only $1.3m???
In other news
Bitcoin and crypto stocks came under pressure early Wednesday as the market continues to wait for spot bitcoin ETF approvals by federal regulators, which are expected to come around Jan. 10.
Who's a billionaire and likes to throw 420.69 around?
My conspiracy theory: copy/paste error
this has elon musk written all over it
Whatever other effect this has, it's likely to put bitcoin back in the mainstream news. "Has Satoshi come back from the dead?" "Who would waste a million dollars?" People love mystery and high stakes.
Not sure who actually profits from this, but I assume it would be someone holding a lot more than that and looking to offload.
EDIT: Deleted a mysterious appearance of the word "sometime" (...did Satoshi put it there?)