Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: How do we really know how many bitcoins does satoshi have?
by
squatter
on 02/07/2020, 21:04:01 UTC
My guess is that he/she destroyed the private keys to those addresses
Although I agree that it is unlikely Satoshi will ever move his coins, and it becomes less likely as time goes on, I would disagree with the quoted statement. I think it is unlikely that Satoshi destroyed those private keys given his previous statements on such a matter:

Sigh... why delete a wallet instead of moving it aside and keeping the old copy just in case?  You should never delete a wallet.

I'm not actually sure about that. Satoshi's thoughts on best practices don't really address what he planned to do with his bitcoins. This quote always makes me wonder:

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

I wouldn't be surprised if those bitcoins are sitting in a bricked wallet. I always thought his intent was to donate that value to the Bitcoin community.