Satoshi Nakamoto’s Genesis Address got $1.19 Million in Bitcoin

[MrSpasybo]

A mysterious transaction has sent $1.19 million worth of bitcoin to Satoshi Nakamoto’s Genesis address. This has sparked a lot of speculation about the identity of the sender and the motives behind the transaction.

An anonymous sender dispatched $1.19 million in bitcoin (BTC) to the “1A1zP” wallet of Satoshi Nakamoto. Originating from the “bc1q9” address, this substantial sum of 26.917 BTC was confirmed at block height 824,513. The motivation behind sending these funds to the Genesis wallet remains a mystery, especially considering the funds have become non-spendable.
>> Satoshi’s Genesis Wallet Receives $1.19 Million Boost: A Cryptic Bitcoin Anniversary Gift

The transaction to the Genesis address was made from an unidentified wallet. The wallet is not associated with any known exchange or other service, which has made it difficult to track down the sender.

There are a number of possible reasons why someone might send bitcoin to the Genesis address:
+ It is a way of honoring Satoshi Nakamoto.
+ It is a way of sending a message to the bitcoin community.
+ It is also possible that the transaction is simply a mistake.

I'm leaning towards the first possibility, because over the past 10 years many people have deposited BTC into this address to honor Satoshi Nakamoto for creating Bitcoin.

However, the large amount of money makes me worried about the possibility of Satoshi Nakamoto returning to crypto community after many years. This could be extremely exciting for all of crypto markets. Of course, I don't want Satoshi's identity to be revealed, both he and Bitcoin need to be safe.

What do you think about the 26.917 bitcoin sent to the Genesis wallet? Why do you think someone would do that?

[tbct_mt2]

This is possibly an attempt to prove that one of Faketoshi, Craig Wright is a real Satoshi Nakamoto.

Will eventually Craig Wright can move those bitcoins to prove that he owns the private key of that address?

Craig Wright is  Faketoshi and I really don't think he will be able to make any movement from this address.

That transaction is very big but there are more tiny transactions into the address. Many of them are like Dusts but it is useless to do Bitcoin dust attack to Genesis address.

https://bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

[MrSpasybo]

This is possibly an attempt to prove that one of Faketoshi, Craig Wright is a real Satoshi Nakamoto.

Will eventually Craig Wright can move those bitcoins to prove that he owns the private key of that address?

Craig Wright is  Faketoshi and I really don't think he will be able to make any movement from this address.

That transaction is very big but there are more tiny transactions into the address. Many of them are like Dusts but it is useless to do Bitcoin dust attack to Genesis address.

https://bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

Ownership is only confirmed by outgoing transactions, not by incoming transactions, so if Craig Wright wants to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, he needs to send at least 1 satoshi from Satoshi address to a specified address. Otherwise, all other attempts at proof are in vain.

Personally, I'm still waiting for more news regarding this event: it would be nice if someone confirmed the purpose of honoring Satoshi with that transaction. I don't think Great Satoshi just came back and DCA more BTC 

I don't expect Satoshi's identity to be discovered in the future. Satoshi's dedication goes beyond the Bitcoin source code, but also includes his anonymity forever 

[tbct_mt2]

Ownership is only confirmed by outgoing transactions, not by incoming transactions, so if Craig Wright wants to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, he needs to send at least 1 satoshi from Satoshi address to a specified address. Otherwise, all other attempts at proof are in vain.

It is true but even not enough.

We can say "Not your keys (private keys), not your bitcoins" but if someone can have access to a private key, send bitcoins, it does not mean the person is an actual original owner of the wallet.

The person can be someone else, just get access to the private key.

So if Craig Wright wants to prove ownership, he must do at least three things.

Move bitcoins from Genesis address.
Sign a Bitcoin message by that a private key of Genesis address.
Sign a PGP message from Satoshi Nakamoto PGP key.

About making a transaction with 1 satoshi, it is not correct because with Bitcoin on-chain transactions, there are limits (minimum) for transactions, to avoid dust attacks.

Depends on address and transaction types, the minimum is different but it is about 330 - 546 satoshis at least.
Legacy addresses: 546 satoshi
Native Segwit addresses: 294 satoshi
Taproot addresses: 330 satoshi

How was the dust limit of 546 satoshis was chosen? Why not 550 satoshis?
What is meant by Bitcoin dust?

Code: [Select]

dust = (input_vsize + output_size) × 3 sat/vB


[owlest]

I do not want Satoshi to return. Some have predicted this event and the collapse of Bitcoin, but I believe this to be a trivial mistake. While making a mistake with such a large amount of money is clearly negligent, this transaction remains a mystery to me.

[hugeblack]

There are some hypotheses, some of which are related to Calvin Ayre and his financing of Craig Wright's litigation, as sending money to those addresses and if Craig was able to transfer it is proof that he is Satoshi. The value of this transaction at the time of sending was £920k, which is the same amount that the court mentioned. You can find the details in @gmaxwell's^[1] comment.


Other hypotheses might say that some people use this address as proof of burning, to the point that some Bitcoin haters were intentionally burning some coins to prove that the project failed.

Regardless of the reason, it is speculation, but the speculation regarding Calvin Ayre seems more logical.


[1] Someone just sent 26 BTC to genesis block address

[ABCbits]

At very least, i don't expect it's a way to send message to Bitcoin community. If someone wants to send message, they could create transaction which send smallerer Bitcoin amount (but big enough to stand out) and use OP_RETURN to include a message.

[MrSpasybo]

So if Craig Wright wants to prove ownership, he must do at least three things.

Move bitcoins from Genesis address.
Sign a Bitcoin message by that a private key of Genesis address.
Sign a PGP message from Satoshi Nakamoto PGP key.

About making a transaction with 1 satoshi, it is not correct because with Bitcoin on-chain transactions, there are limits (minimum) for transactions, to avoid dust attacks.

Depends on address and transaction types, the minimum is different but it is about 330 - 546 satoshis at least.
Legacy addresses: 546 satoshi
Native Segwit addresses: 294 satoshi
Taproot addresses: 330 satoshi

+1
Thank you for very detailed and useful information. Amount 1 sat is only symbolic to indicate the ability to transfer BTC from an account instead of receiving BTC. Up to this moment, after more than 10 years, no sat has been transferred from Genesis address, this is good news for the fate of Bitcoin and BTC holders.

Other hypotheses might say that some people use this address as proof of burning, to the point that some Bitcoin haters were intentionally burning some coins to prove that the project failed.

Perhaps Bitcoin haters will be disappointed because the more BTC is burned, the less BTC there is in circulation, causing scarcity to increase, BTC price will increase, attracting more investor attention, organizations and governments.
Unless they can burn so much BTC that it affects market liquidity 

[Freemind]

Ownership is only confirmed by outgoing transactions, not by incoming transactions, so if Craig Wright wants to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, he needs to send at least 1 satoshi from Satoshi address to a specified address. Otherwise, all other attempts at proof are in vain.

Personally, I'm still waiting for more news regarding this event: it would be nice if someone confirmed the purpose of honoring Satoshi with that transaction. I don't think Great Satoshi just came back and DCA more BTC 

I don't expect Satoshi's identity to be discovered in the future. Satoshi's dedication goes beyond the Bitcoin source code, but also includes his anonymity forever 

What Craig Wright has demonstrated over the years is his ego and his lack of respect towards the crypto community. He has had many opportunities to prove that he is Satoshi and on no occasion has he shown any proof or transaction related to ownership of the original Satoshi wallets. All he did was make excuses until people stopped paying attention to him.

As for Satoshi's identity, I hope it never becomes public. That could cause him several problems in certain countries.

[Rikafip]

I do not want Satoshi to return.

No one wants Satoshi to return as if he moves those bitcoins, it was cause the havoc on the market. With that being said, I don't think that he will ever reapper and/or move those bitcoins and that's one of the biggest bitcoins strength anonymity of its creator. 

Some have predicted this event and the collapse of Bitcoin, but I believe this to be a trivial mistake. While making a mistake with such a large amount of money is clearly negligent, this transaction remains a mystery to me.

I don't think that this is a mistake but instead calculated move from someone with ulterior motive.

[SamReomo]

We can say "Not your keys (private keys), not your bitcoins" but if someone can have access to a private key, send bitcoins, it does not mean the person is an actual original owner of the wallet.

That's a harsh truth that I'm going to tell but it's a reality. Anyone who has the private keys of a wallet and can send Bitcoin from that wallet to other wallets is the owner of the wallet. Let's suppose if Craig Wright gets access to the keys of Satoshi's wallet then for time being he will be the owner of the wallet and he can do anything with that wallet. 

Although we all know that Craig Wright is a Faketoshi not the original Satoshi but if somehow he gets access to the private keys then majority will trust him as Satoshi and the quest to find the original Satoshi will end. That won't happen and we hope that Craig won't be able to use that wallet to send any Bitcoin.

[owlest]

No one wants Satoshi to return as if he moves those bitcoins, it was cause the havoc on the market. With that being said, I don't think that he will ever reapper and/or move those bitcoins and that's one of the biggest bitcoins strength anonymity of its creator. 

Satoshi's return is risky and could have unfortunate consequences. Bitcoin has gained a certain mystique during his absence, which draws attention to it.

I don't think that this is a mistake but instead calculated move from someone with ulterior motive.

It is unclear why he burned so much bitcoin if this move was deliberate, especially since there isn't much of it left in access. Is he really that wealthy?

[dkbit98]

There is one theory floating around that someone (maybe government) sent all this coins to original satoshi address with intention to try and identify him and to see if he is still alive.
I don't know the truth behind this strange transfer, but I know for sure that this transaction was not done by a mistake but intentionally.

[MrSpasybo]

There is one theory floating around that someone (maybe government) sent all this coins to original satoshi address with intention to try and identify him and to see if he is still alive.
I don't know the truth behind this strange transfer, but I know for sure that this transaction was not done by a mistake but intentionally.

I read everyone's comments and wondered: "Have we gone too far and fallen into conspiracy theories" ^^

Perhaps, this is just an accidental error, like the incident where someone paid more than 80 BTC for transaction fees^[1], even Paxos mistakenly paid about 20 BTC for transaction fees^[2]. Maybe a BTC millionaire stores the Genesis address and accidentally pastes it into the BTC receiving address when making a transaction. Because if I cout the message of this transaction as an NFT minted at price $1.19M, I would at least write something to Satoshi like “Satoshi, we miss you!”
[1] Bitcoin Sender Mistakenly Overpays Record $3M in Transaction Fees
[2] Paxos mistakenly paid over $500k for one Bitcoin transaction

[Freemind]

There is one theory floating around that someone (maybe government) sent all this coins to original satoshi address with intention to try and identify him and to see if he is still alive.
I don't know the truth behind this strange transfer, but I know for sure that this transaction was not done by a mistake but intentionally.

Satoshi has managed to remain anonymous all these years, among other things, by not altering his way of doing things. That means that Satoshi won't do anything strange when he receives coins in his wallet. Disappearing "completely" is one of the smartest things he's ever done, the amount of trouble Satoshi could get into is uncountable. As for the transfers that Satoshi has received, I think they are very juicy bait to see if he takes the bait.