Early last night, a massive Bitcoin transaction went down. A transaction worth an incredible $147 million with several sending addresses involved. As I have mentioned in a previous article, you can attach messages to Bitcoin transactions and tagged to this one was simply: “Shitload of Money!”

The world of Bitcoin is abuzz with speculation as to the nature of the transaction, but it seems possible that the bitcoins are moving from a lesser to a more secure form of storage. This is how it looks on the Blockchain:

Coindesk has some interesting analysis on the whole thing. Here are some excerpts:

The transaction, tagged “Shit Load of Money!” by its mystery originator, appeared on Blockchain.info early in the evening of 22nd November. It is one of the largest transactions in bitcoin’s history, by far the largest under bitcoin’s recent high prices, and represents 1.6% of all bitcoins now in circulation.

Bitcoin’s distributed nature ensures all transactions are visible on the public record, though users are identified only by 30+ character addresses (and any tags they choose to add). If the address is not already known and the user does not identify themselves in an obvious way, they remain anonymous without analysis or detective work.

Unsurprisingly, a transaction of that size has prompted the bitcoin community to do some analysis and detective work. The transaction involved a large number of sending addresses, with some of them from blocks mined in February 2010 or even earlier, prompting excited speculation they might be from Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin’s absent (and likely pseudonymous) founder.

Satoshi Nakamoto is unlikely to reveal him/herself in such an ostentatious manner, and early coins may have changed hands several times. More possibly the lucky owner is a miner from bitcoin’s early days, or a business moving the amount to a more secure form of physical storage. The humorous tag suggests an individual rather than a business.

More than anything else, what is most incredible about this to me, is the ease and low cost that was associated with moving such a large sum of money.

Full Coindesk article here.

In Liberty,

Mike

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