Just saw this tidbit about bitcoin:

Five hundredths of a percent of bitcoin investors control over 40% of all bitcoin, and just under half a percent of all bitcoin investors control over 5/6ths, or 83%, of bitcoin.

Take away the estimated 2.7-3.7 million bitcoin which is thought to be "lost" and there isn't much left. If accurate, that would seem to be a major issue for a "non-centralized" currency...

Mr. Tact wrote on Jan 14, 2021, 00:07:
Yeah. I almost did some mining in the early days, I liked the "crypto" aspect of the idea. These days when I think about it, I wonder if I had mined up a few thousand bitcoin would I have done something retrospective silly like this? Or simply "lost" them like so many seem to have? Kind of makes me glad I got distracted by something else -- looking back and having spent millions on pizza would be awfully damn painful.

Speaking for myself, I most definitely would have spent some coins on frivolous bullshit early on, if I had mined any. I surely wouldn't keep them for 10+ years hoping they would be worth $40,000 a piece, rofl! When they were first being bandied about, I was way too suspicious of the mining programs, and thrashing my video card to death for 'imaginary coins' so I avoided them. Now... pretty much the same opinion, but it would have been nice to have 20-30 thousand bitcoins lying around on a thumb drive or something.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 23:59:

Mr. Tact wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 21:58:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 21:44:
Don't dwell on it. Think of all those guys bragging about buying pizzas and other takeout with Bitcoins back when they were new. Man, I hope those restaurants hung onto those coins!

The $350m pizza order.

LOL, wow. 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas... ugh... I am literally laughing to myself out loud reading that article. Now that's got to be some regret. Especially since mining bitcoins back then was so computationally cheap.. haha!

Somewhat interesting it wasn't directly to the pizza place though, I had misremembered that detail. Hopefully the intermediary kept those coins longer.

Yeah. I almost did some mining in the early days, I liked the "crypto" aspect of the idea. These days when I think about it, I wonder if I had mined up a few thousand bitcoin would I have done something retrospective silly like this? Or simply "lost" them like so many seem to have? Kind of makes me glad I got distracted by something else -- looking back and having spent millions on pizza would be awfully damn painful.

Mr. Tact wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 21:58:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 21:44:
Don't dwell on it. Think of all those guys bragging about buying pizzas and other takeout with Bitcoins back when they were new. Man, I hope those restaurants hung onto those coins!

The $350m pizza order.

LOL, wow. 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas... ugh... I am literally laughing to myself out loud reading that article. Now that's got to be some regret. Especially since mining bitcoins back then was so computationally cheap.. haha!

Somewhat interesting it wasn't directly to the pizza place though, I had misremembered that detail. Hopefully the intermediary kept those coins longer.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 21:44:
Don't dwell on it. Think of all those guys bragging about buying pizzas and other takeout with Bitcoins back when they were new. Man, I hope those restaurants hung onto those coins!

The $350m pizza order.

Krazy Kat wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 16:40:
Long ago I bought $100 in bitcoin. Forgot about it. Got a new PC. Threw the old one away. It would be worth $74,000 now. Sigh.

Don't dwell on it. Think of all those guys bragging about buying pizzas and other takeout with Bitcoins back when they were new. Man, I hope those restaurants hung onto those coins!

Long ago I bought $100 in bitcoin. Forgot about it. Got a new PC. Threw the old one away. It would be worth $74,000 now. Sigh.

Planet Money did a story on lost wallets in 2018. Apparently, the estimate of "lost" bitcoin, ie. accounts which no one has the private key to access the account, is 2.7-3.7 million bitcoins. At $35,000 per bitcoin that is more than $94 billion dollars.

Two guesses for locked bitcoins? Kiss that $240m goodbye. There have probably been billions of dollars worth of bitcoins lost at this point. Satoshi Nakamoto (whoever that may be, person or persons) probably already lost most of his/their bitcoins. Just, evaporated, passwords forgotten, or lost due to degradation of harddrives.

People lie on the Internet? I am shocked. SHOCKED!

And of course nobody on Tik-Tok would ever lie about their age..