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64 key profiles would be in possession of the first millions of bitcoins created

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64 key profiles would be in possession of the first millions of bitcoins created

Bitcoin may not be as decentralized as it promises. In fact, it may never have been. Research conducted by a group of scientists from the University of Houston revealed that in the first two years of bitcoin transactions, that is, between 2009 and 2011, 64 ‘actors’ would have accumulated most of the cryptocurrencies mined in that period: approx about ten million of the 20 mined so faraccording to Statesman.

Sixty-four (individuals or groups it is not known) is an insignificant number compared to approximately 110 million bitcoin holders worldwide: a small circle, or a rather extended family. The study was recounted in a rather detailed article in the New York Times and immediately relaunched by many scholars in the sector. Among the first, Nassim Nicholas Talebthe Lebanese mathematician author of “The Black Swan”, who has been supporting the same thesis for some time.

Bitcoin: the researchers’ thesis, and the method used

Research is a mix of data analysis, field research, and the crossing of information collected for years on the net. Alyssa Blackburnfirst signer of the study and a data scientist at the American university, explained that she had aggregated “drop by drop” data analysis, leaks, digital currency shifts and messages collected on industry forums to “erode blocks and private information. previously impenetrable “.

Result: of what appeared to be tens of thousands of active miners in that period, in reality the circle of scientific investigations gradually narrowed first to thousands, then to hundreds, then to a few tens of miners. Up to the exact number: 64. The founders of the bitcoin community, argues the NYT, who mined the vast majority of the bitcoins present at the time.

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Why study matters: the 51% principle

Because it’s important? Bitcoin bases much of its value on the widespread belief that it is considered impossible that a single person, or a limited group of people, could possess 51% of the computing power of the blockchain, the protocol that allows the transfer of bitcoins from one wallet to another and guarantees authenticity and non-duplicability of the transferred value. This is somewhat the principle of decentralization of bitcoin: there is no third authority to guarantee the value of the traded asset (bitcoin), but it is the community itself that does it, a little on principle, a little for safeguard the value created over time by the digital asset.

At the end of 2011, the bitcoins mined were about 10 million. Today we travel towards 21 million. But if the scientists’ thesis is true, namely that between 2009 and 2011 most of the bitcoins were in the hands of a few people, their power would still be enormous, capitalizing on the bitcoins in circulation about 1.3 trillion dollars. They may still have unparalleled reserves of value. For sure, most of the wealth and power of the entire global bitcoin community. A plastic realization of the distribution of Pareto: as wealth increases (the value of bitcoin and the number of those who own them) the range of those who own most of this wealth decreases in percentage. Sixty-four out of 110 million.

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Who are the 64 actors?

For scientists dealing with the world of crypto it is a discovery. The information contained in the report, not yet published, respects the scientific method. So they are valid. “What they discovered, namely the concentration of mining and the use of bitcoin in the early years, it is a scientific discovery“, he has declared Eric Budishan economist at the University of Chicago, who called the report “great detective work.”

The purpose of the study, the authors specify, is not to name names. But a couple of names popped up. The first, of course, is that of Satoshi Nakamoto, legendary creator of the white paper that gave birth to bitcoin. It is not known whether he is a physical person or a collective, his identity is, 15 years later, a mystery. Agent number 19 is instead Michael Mancil Brown, aka “Dr. Evil”, found guilty in 2012 of fraud and extortion in a trial involving Mitt Romney, then US presidential candidate. Agent no. 67 is associated with Ross Ulbrichtaka “DreadPirateRoberts”, creator of the Silk Road, a portal seized in 2014 because it allegedly allowed the purchase and sale of weapons and drugs online through cryptocurrencies.

Perhaps this discovery will not change much. None of the holders of bitcoin today would like to see the wealth achieved vanish. But, if the data is confirmed, the anarcho-capitalist dream of cryptocurrencies could turn out to be little more than propaganda.

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