Earlier this week we briefly mentioned the phenomenon of dormant bitcoin wallets and their impact on the market once they “wake up”.
In most cases, the owners of such wallets know better than to lose all their cryptos to the exchanges in one fell swoop. With enough coinage, this would result in a rapid sell-off and slump, costing the owner – and everyone else – a significant amount of value in the short and medium term.
With that in mind, we thought about the largest dormant wallet of all: the so-called Satoshi Nakamoto wallet.
Well, this is not a literal single BTC wallet, but rather a series of wallets and legacy transactions linked to an OG bitcoin address believed to be that of the crypto’s pseudonymous creator.
Anyone with access to the dormant wallets currently holding Satoshi’s crypto could prove their identity as a bitcoin creator simply by proving possession of the keys.
Of course this has not happened yet. And that’s just as well.
Satoshi’s bitcoin wallet
Satoshi’s wallets hold 980,000 bitcoins.
At today’s valuation, that’s the USD equivalent of over $19.3 billion. That would put Satoshi – whoever he is – at the bottom of the current Forbes list of the top 100 billionaires.
At Bitcoin’s all-time high last year (roughly $67,500 per BTC), those 980,000 coins were worth over $66 billion, which would put Satoshi comfortably in the top 50.
It is conceivable that in a few years Satoshi will become the richest person in the world.
But again, if Satoshi were to list all of these coins at once, the price of BTC would plummet, and so would his fortune. It’s not a smart move unless other life circumstances dictate the need.
If you are betting with bitcoin, this is not the way to go.
But even if a person comes out of nowhere and actually proves to be a satoshi by showing access to the keys in question, it would similarly – albeit a little less drastically – boost the price of BTC.
And that would also be an unsound business move.
After all, the creator of Bitcoin probably has no real interest in destroying Bitcoin. (Yes, we’re assuming Satoshi isn’t the world’s biggest troll running the world’s longest scam.)
So what to do?
All of this poses a real mystery: assuming Satoshi is alive and these coins are not truly lost forever, how could they be released – how could Satoshi cash out as a real gamer always has to – without the BTC market in an irreversible situation occurs (or almost irreversible) Tailspin?
Some analysts say that reasonably cannot happen.
Keep in mind that even someone who just demonstrates ownership of those almost a million bitcoins – and does so without transferring them to any exchanges or ceasing custody of even a fraction of a single bitcoin – creates a massive cloud over the entire bitcoin network would throw.
And as the crypto market evolves like bitcoin, it would lead to an incredible crash like we’ve never seen before.
We’re all about buying the dip, but there’s a limit, you know?
So, is there a way this Satoshi guy/entity could effectively “cash out” their bitcoin without destroying the platform or the broader crypto marketplace?
I think so.
Disclaimer: I’m not sure if this is a new idea. Probably not. But I flagged it up among some much better-informed crypto-enthusiast buddies of mine, and they didn’t immediately link me to an existing article postulating the same plan. At the very least, that means that my idea – while not entirely new – is new enough to warrant this post. And again, this assumes that “Satoshi” is actually still alive. And that he’s not King Troll.
Bored Satoshi Bitcoin Club
OK, listen to me:
One day in the not too distant future, Satoshi introduces himself and proves his identity by showing that he has access to the 980,000 Bitcoin in question.
But in the same press conference – before the markets react to the news – Satoshi also announces that he will not release this bitcoin on the open exchange markets or into the existing active supply.
Instead, Satoshi has created a unique Ethereum NFT (and/or Cardano NFT, etc.) of each and every Satoshi Original™ Bitcoin (stock exchange symbol SOB), each with its own number and digital certificate of authenticity.
Satoshi’s bitcoins are so mythical at this point that they would actually be traded as collectibles.
Now all that bitcoin is 100% booked and back on the market, but it doesn’t disrupt the current model of established/expected bitcoin scarcity.
What do you think?
Would you pay a premium for a tokenized Bitcoin NFT to have a piece of crypto history in the form of an entire Bitcoin that would always be worth more than its non-Satoshi Original™ equivalent?
Sign me up.