I blame my poor ESL skill set for all the misunderstandings on this thread I thought I was staying on thread topic a bitcoin transaction that involves $1.1 Billion of value , and how I would go about it which would take 1-2 weeks, because I would take many steps for security and safety The whale used plain bitcoin transfer for the 10,000 bitcoin and as such, it took about 10 minutes to confirm on the blockchain, which I thought has been known by everyone by now, I even referenced my post on the Bitcoin Price thread for context on how I go about performing bitcoin transfers by breaking up the amount to no more than 0.25 bitcoin per single transaction this is in case there are any issues, my loss would be limited to no more than 0.25 bitcoin Does anyone else do this? I'm guessing 99.99% of the people performing bitcoin transactions do not have this OCD process
John's advice is good, but I want to offer a different solution. If its a very small amount, the Aqua Bitcoin app that he suggests is a good idea. But you have to remember, that private seed is on your phone. When you look at it to write it down, who knows what other parts of your phone can see it and send it out. So I think the gold standard these days, if you don't have the skills John has, is to use a HWW. I recommend a Cold Card or Blockstream Jade. I've already explained how the seed is generated in the device, then when you make it for the first time, it is shown to you once so you have to back it up, and then in most cases, you can never see it again. If anyone finds your device, they only get a few tries to enter a pin code before the device is wiped clean. There is also generally no way to extract the seed phrase if someone were to steal it. Of course the big problem is that if you get the HWW shipped to your house, someone knows you bought a HWW, so best if you can get it shipped to work or at least a PO Box so there is another hop in between your name and the seller. (there was a major Hack in 2017 I think where the mailing list of a HWW maker, Ledger, was leaked, and all the people who bought one were targeted. I honestly think I had a friend move simply because his home address was now exposed) Now lets talk making a transaction. If you use the HWW, you need to somehow connect to a node in order to make the transaction. In the case of the Blockstream Jade, the default is to use their node and their servers. They don't know who you are, but perhaps they will have your real IP if you don't use a VPN, so its another small security issue. Same thing if you go with a device from Trezor. Using their software or app means they process the transaction for you. It doesn't mean they can steal your money, but they will know your balances and addresses. The ColdCard doesn't make software, but there are many good free software vendors, like Sparrow Wallet. This allows your HWW to send transactions to the network. But once again, it needs to know which node you will use. The default is one of 2 very public nodes. So once again, who knows what they do with all that information. But now we get to the ultimate setup. You can tell Sparrow Wallet to use your own Bitcoin node. This means that on your computer, or on a server, you are running a copy of either Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin Knots yourself. This means that you have a copy of the entire blockchain, and you accept and pass along transactions. And when you want to make a transaction yourself, Sparrow Wallet, which is connected to your node, will now insert your own transaction and Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin Knots will just pass it along to everyone else. At some point, a miner sees it, and adds it to the blockchain. Nobody knows who you are or where this transaction came from. Your computer isn't the weak point because your private seed is on the HWW, so you can still use Windows and have only 1 laptop (and you have backups of the seed in something like metal plates). Best is to of course still use a VPN. I use an older laptop that just runs Bitcoin Knots software and its on 24/7. Costs only a few dollars of electricity per month. Also, you don't even need to have this laptop on all the time, but if you need to make a transaction, you would have to wait for your node to catch up to the current state of the network by downloading all the missed blocks and verifying them. This is still way more effort that most people won't do, but you have ultimate flexibility and security. If you're really gonna buy $100k worth of BTC, you need to learn this.
Anyhow, let's get back on topic. Others mentioned Richard Heart as a possible source of the transfers. I think he is still on the run and his net worth was only 500 million, so I don't see it. https://protos.com/richard-heart-is-still-a-fugitive-despite-dismissal-of-sec-case/
Old wallets talked about here raises a question that I hope someone may have an answer. I have a friend that I have been talking Bitcoin with since the Spring of 2017 as it was starting its big move. Suddenly at lunch on this past New Years Eve he casually mentioned that he put $100 into Bitcoin at the annual Money Show Convention held in Orlando in late Jan early Feb every year. It was a breakout session introducing something new in the financial community. He and this wife who confirmed this purchase thought they were just tossing 100 bucks into the wind. He does not remember the year, and did not have his computer there but the group leader led them through a process to actually buy some Bitcoin somehow. I told him depending on "how early" he could have bought anywhere from 10 to 100 Bitcoins but he has no idea how to go about accessing these coins. Would anyone have any idea how to go about trying to locate those Bitcoins that he purchased. He does not have anything written down as to passwords etc. so he has just accepted that it was just a $100 lost and no way to get to it. Ideas anyone?
a printed paper with a qr code, with the private key and public key both spelled out in plain sight was common way to sell bitcoin, the facilitator of the event would have had them take a picture of it in case they lose the paper Casascius coins were a very fancy and beautiful version of this paper wallet but in case they gave him a file somehow through email or on a usb or a cdrom that he was instructed to copy to this computer... disconnect the computer from internet... power it on and search for wallet.dat file, if located make at least 2 copies, we can talk more about it later Also search his email for a wallet.dat or bitcoin or the name of the event, it might have been emailed as an attachment or a printed copy of the private and public keys (plus the qr) Good luck to your friend
Finally, I'm seeing someone with the coolest possibilities surrounding this news. I don't believe this dude waited this long except otherwise as you suggested.