195K Bitcoin Transaction 167
First time accepted submitter saidi writes "The Washington Post reports that yesterday a truly massive Bitcoin transaction occurred, from the article: 'In this particular transaction, bitcoins from 15 different Bitcoin addresses were consolidated and sent to address 12sENwECeRSmTeDwyLNqwh47JistZqFmW8. The size of the transaction? 194,993 bitcoins. Given that one bitcoin is worth around $800 right now, the transaction is valued at more than $150 million.'"
A researcher did a bit of digging, and it appears that this was the Bitstamp exchange moving their balance around (business appears brisk).
Re:I think I will stop reading slashdot....... (Score:4, Informative)
If you create an account, go to options under your username after logging in, you can set terms to ignore and those stories should not appear on your front page. Setting a term Bitcoin should stop stories about bitcoin from entering your front page.
If you insist on posting anonymously, then simply log out after seeing what stories interest you and opening them in another tab.
I'm personally at a loss to why people think so highly of bitcoin. There are about 80 or so other virtual currency exchanges out there and it seems that none of them are stable in the sense of real currencies. I understand the concept of it being like a credit card with the limitations of a wallet (Ie if you lose your wallet, you lose only the funds in it where if you lose your credit card, it can be charged until it is shut off), but beyond that, I just don't get it.
Re:Ghost transactions (Score:1, Informative)
Indeed, fortunately a fix will soon be available.
http://zerocoin.org/
Re:Hypothetical Question (Score:5, Informative)
I know what would happen to my bank account, but would that have thrown the entire system into chaos if I cashed in that many at once?
There is a liquidity problem with BTC. You probably would have great trouble trying to cash in that many, AND get actual US dollars for them.
Sure... you could switch from a BTC balance to a USD balance at Mtgox... do you think they will be sending you your check anytime soon?