This is yet another post that started with a comment in another content creators post.
This time it was while reading an OG authors latest post. Have been following @Kovichni from the beginning of time. (unfortunately the Pb0x tagging system no longer seems to work).
The post in question was about losing 75,000 Bitcoin and the latest update on the ongoing saga.
You must know that story about the guy who was mining Bitcoin in 2009 and accidentally threw his hard drive in the rubbish.
Even "I am not Satoshi" and "Pizza" guy get a mention.
The 75000 Bitcoin-trash saga comes to an end
Note: It was only 7,500 Bitcoin not 75,000 Bitcoin. Have included the original Guardian article from 11 years ago in resources.
The Serial Commenters
Now this story involves 2 serial commenters, well it does at the very beginning.
If you do a search for virtual crypto wallets, it virtually comes up with nothing.
It is safe to say that James did not have the option of using a virtual crypto wallet, as they did not seem to exist in 2009.
But I did find some other interesting Bitcoin Wallet trivia in the search.
Bitcoin Wallets
2009
the first Bitcoin wallet was called Bitcoin-Qt and the wallet protocol was released alongside the Bitcoin blockchain.
The first Bitcoin wallet was a Full Client, as one had to download the full blockchain history for the wallet to synchronize.
Bitcoin-Qt started with version 0.9.0. Bitcoin-Qt was later renamed to Bitcoin Core wallet. Cause "Core" sounded more "strong and rock-like" (Gavin Andresen proposal).
2011
Casascius physical Bitcoins
were produced in 1, 10, 25, 100, and 1000 BTC values. Similar to paper wallets, the private keys were stored underneath a tamper-proof hologram on the back of a brass token.
Paper Wallet
Peter Kroll’s Bitaddress.org was the first to introduce a user-friendly and popular paper wallet generator.
2013
“It started as a hobby project — we wanted to make a couple of hardware wallets for our friends. But soon we realized that we had found a big market gap. Now we are one of the most trusted wallets in the world.”
Marek (Slush) Palatinus, CEO of SatoshiLabs
The creators of Trezor founded SatoshiLabs.
SatoshiLabs used crowd-funding for their TREZOR One promotion. Initially they tried Kickstarter but abandoned due to hiccups. So SatoshiLabs decided to get funds direct from the Bitcoin community.
They offered Bitcoinists 2 ways of supporting its crowdfunding campaign.
Supporters could either pay 1 BTC for a standard Trezor unit with a plastic casing, or pay 3 BTC for the aluminium-clad option.
Note: 1 BTC was $100 during the device's crowdfunding campaign period. However, bitcoin's value began to climb steeply in mid-October 2013 and the crowdfunding was terminated.
2014
Trezor
a Czech company released the first cold storage hardware wallet. The TREZOR One.
The TREZOR One was a secure, user-friendly hardware wallet, that introduced seed recovery and passphrase protection (BIP39 and BIP44). It was also an open-source code that is used in other hardware and software wallets.
Note: "Trezor" translates in Czech to "vault"
SatoshiLabs is an umbrella organisation for Pavol Rusnak and Marek Palatinus Bitcoin projects which included:
- TREZOR One
- Coinmap - crowdsourced map of real-world merchants who accept bitcoin payments
- Slush's Pool -bitcoin mining 'pool' that lets users work together to mine bitcoins and distribute the proceeds among themselves (novel idea at the time)
Xapo
founded by Wences Casares and Federico Murrone in 2013, Xapo released their first products to the public in March 2014.
The Xapo Wallet operated through a mobile app (online) which included the ability to transfer funds to and from the Xapo Vault.
Later in April, Xapo released their debit card that was linked to the user’s Xapo Wallet and functioned like a standard debit card. Except that it was backed by bitcoins instead of fiat currency.
Among Xapo board of advisors was the founder of Visa, CEO of Citibank, and the previous Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton. Impressive line-up.
Note: The Xapo Vault consisted of physical servers located around the globe that were protected by biometric scanner access, 24-7 video surveillance, and armed guards. The servers were in undisclosed locations underground.
Ledger
August the Paris based startup releases the Ledger Nano. Cheaper than the Trezor One. (which is why in 2017 we went with the later version Nano S, instead of paying 3x as much for the bigger Trezor.
Came with a 2FA security card with 58 pairs of characters.
Have included in resources a review of the 2014 Ledger Nano. The Ledger Nano has come along was since the early Nano's.
2016
Ledger Nano S
replaced the 2FA security cards. Allowed users to manage their assets and ERC20 tokens using the Ledger Live app on desktop.
2020
Banks
The Office of the Comptroller of Currency sent out a letter to all Major banks in the US, informing that cryptocurrencies can now be treated like any other digital asset. (Yes that is a real name)
As of July, all National and Federal savings associations (banks) in the U.S could provide custody services for customers for their Bitcoin private keys.
2024
Virtual Crypto Wallets
"From any software wallet it is possible to create virtual wallets by not storing private keys in an encrypted file, but instead generating the private keys when they are needed." @I_g_o_r
Pity James Howells did not know about Virtual Crypto Wallets in 2009.
Solpick.io Two Week Update
Thanks to @uroojmir, gave the solpick.io faucet a second try.
It's been 2 weeks and currently have over 0.01 SOL, which is just over $3.00 AUD. It would be more but only just worked out how the system works. Or at least part of it.
We started on Stone and got 0.000001000 SOL per claim. It is a set amount depending on what level you are on. On top of the Faucet, Solpick also has games surveys and contests. Have no interest in the games and contests.
Cause we use a VPN, we got blocked from CPX Research, which is our preferred survey vendor on Cointiply. Because BitLabs was not highlighted, just assumed it was also not available. Apparently it is available after all, just had to click on it.
All it took to progress from Stone to Iron is to do a couple of surveys. From Iron to Bronze it is going to take a lot more than a couple. I do not know whether you can regress if you do not complete surveys consistently.
On top of all that that also have the Bonus Faucet where you get a certain amount of free claims for completing certain tasks e.g. registering gives 10 bonus claims and 2x rewards for 24 hours.
Because there is a 0.000100000 SOL withdrawal transaction fee, will let it build up a bit more before testing the withdrawal function.
It's been funn so far. Will keep you posted.
Support Your Local Paranoid Psychopathic Crypto Anarchist's Grandson Stacking Sats
Tip, like, follow and use the referral links below, as all the crypto dust goes to supporting and helping our 6 year old Grandson become a future OG.
Click on the images or if you prefer the corresponding URL link.
Bitcoin (BTC)
FreeBitco.in has the title of Longest Running BTC Faucet (since 2013). Earn sats, Reward Points and Lottery Tickets every hour with the longest running Bitcoin faucet. Use the reward points for 1000% 500% 100% and 50% BTC Bonuses, Wheel of Fortune tickets or more Lottery Tickets. Get daily compound interest on BTC deposits. Currently paying 3sats every hour and 4 Reward Points per roll or with the 1000% BTC Bonus 22 sats for a day. The Grandson has withdrawn 150,000 sats, so we have to start all over. You also have the option of purchasing their native FUN. But have not explored their FUN tokens, as we draw the line at paying for free stuff.
https://freebitco.in/?r=51015545&tag=pb0x
Earn coins fromy hourly faucet roll, games, surveys, watch PTC ads, multipliers, earn interest etc. Minimum withdrawal 50,000 coins direct to your Bitcoin wallet ($5 BTC), no withdrawal fees. Or redeem coins direct to your DOGE, DASH or LTC wallets (minimum $3). Can use PTC ads and surveys to get a payout within a week or quicker. 9 BTC payouts so far to FreeBitco.in, but for awhile was withdrawing LTC (19) to MexC, along with Pb0x tips and other crypto dust, to buy more ZEPH.
Recently revamped site. Earn BTC with faucet, level ups, games, betting, promo codes, wagers and tasks. 50% referral commission. Been using their Bitcoin faucet coming up 4 years. Possible to earn 1000+ sats a day when got time to play. Made the 30,000 sats minimum threshold and sent to freebitco.in. Note there was no fee to make the withdrawal.
https://freebitcoin.io/?ref=150742
Zcash (ZEC)
Been claiming ZEC every 24 hours from PipeFlare, since 2020. Earn commissions on 4 tiers of referrals (25%, 15%, 10% and 5%), paid monthly. Plus claim free 1FLR (native token) 2FLR, POL, SHIB, DOGWIFHAT ESE, BONK,and Aurora. Earn more with games, level ups, NFT, 1FLR staking, subscriptions etc. Have earned total 113 ZEC just from the referral commissions alone over the last 4 years.
Solana (SOL)
As Solana makes up 20% of the Grandsons portfolio, getting free SOL is of interest.
This is more of a community notice for the like minded SOL collectors. As it is run by the devs, there is no referral program.
Been using solfaucet regularly for over a couple years. Earn 0.00001 SOL per day, regardless of SOL value at the time. The SOL is instantly paid to your Solana address. Catch is all new addresses must maintain the minimum rent-exempt balance of 0.00089088 SOL to be able to claim from the faucet. Is supported in part by the Shinobi Systems validator.
https://solfaucet.togatech.org/
You get 2x Bonus rewards and 10 free rolls for the 1st 24 hours on registering. Minimum withdrawal is 0.00250000 SOL and transaction fee is 0.000100000 SOL. Also has Surveys, Games and Contests to earn more. Minimum faucet roll is 0.000001000 SOL at Stone Level, playing games will help you reach the next level Iron and 0.000002500 SOL. Master Level pays 0.010000000 SOL.
https://solpick.io/?ref=VEH2024
Non-KYC On/Off Ramp
You have two options just buy/sell direct from the advertised offers. You can select country, payment, crypto and no KYC required. There is a 5-30% premium over market rates.
Or you can make your own offer with your own premium, in other words you become a "broker". This requires a verified phone number, which is easy enough to get around. You can use a e-number, burner phone etc. The phone can be based in another country. Plus you should use a VPN.
Note: 2024 we have been buying LTC from 3 gentlemen from Kenya. Their profile name stays the same regardless what platform we have used. But each time we send money it is to a different Kenyan phone number and name. And no they are not Kenyan princes, they are just tech savvy entrepreneurs trying to make a living. Still the irony is not lost on us but the lessons have been learned.
https://localcoinswap.com/?rc=CF11860C
