Testnet bitcoins have no value, despite the fact that they're too expensive to mine. Since they don't have value and there is no profit from mining, what's the miner's incentive?
miner8VH6WPrsQ1Fxqb7MPgJEoFYX2RCkS right now has 1,654,132 TBTC. If we assume that they have no value, then they don't. But, since people want testnet bitcoins, why don't they have value? I don't get this. Isn't this a free market? Isn't there a demand and a supply for testnet bitcoins?
I'm going to necro post the fuck out of this thing because I too realized this and decided to let my free market deturmin if they have value or not.
Thus far, there is always someone in line to buy them on the bid.
Also, part of the propaganda of v4 launching was that people "ran out" of v3. This guy still has a million v3 coins in the OP link!!!!!!!!
Having a small amount of value will hopefully shake those types of people loose of their coins. Although, there is a miner in v4 with >900,000 TBTC and counting... they are absolutely rekting the 20 min reset rule.
Testnet will likely switch to full POW early next year. This is good for multiple reasons, but being more similar to Mainnet and allowing testnets to test IRL POW will be a good thing for a lot of people/companies. I expect it will help hashing power on the Mainnet.