The publication intentionally lost the private keys that held their bitcoin, all to prove that the major cryptocurrency cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use cryptographic technologies to secure their operation. is just an “abstraction.” Who was the lesson for?
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One of the most common fears among digital digital technologies are these electronic tools that have the ability to generate, store or even process data. currency currency is a medium of exchange that defines value. investors is losing their funds. Whether it’s from a scam, hacking, or what may sound as simple as losing the crypto keys. That’s why the first piece of advice from the most experienced in the space is always to. manage private keys and the second is perhaps obvious: keep those keys in a safe place.
Perder las llaves privadas, o la clave secreta que permite la propiedad y el acceso absoluto a sus criptomonedas, no es tan poco común como se pensaría. De hecho, una encuesta en Estados Unidos arrojó que 40% of digital currency holders lose their keys .
In 2013, the American magazineWiredwhich publishes on emerging technologies and their impact on spheres such as culture, economics and politics, lost a dozenbitcoins after throwing away his private keys. However, it wasn’t accidental. It was all part of a – not-so-elaborate – plan by the magazine to show its point that the flagship cryptocurrency“is nothing more than an abstractionnone
A user inReddit recalled the event this week and the news outletCointelegraph he said.
Wired se deshizo de 13 bitcoins
Eight years ago, the renowned 25+ year old magazine decided to launch a small cryptocurrency mining a process where blocks are added to a blockchain, verifying transactions. It is also the process through which new bitcoin or some altcoins are created. experiment. In one corner of the office, journalist Robert McMillan, who now works for theWall Street Journala small piece of mining equipment from the now defunct company had been installed.Butterfly Labs .
The device mined coins at an average power of 5.5 billion hashes per second (GH/s), and expended relatively little power, between 43 and 44 watts, according to a report byWired at the time. The company even joined with a mining group calledEclipse Mining Consortium with the aim of combining mining power with the possibility of increasing its possibilities.
It is worth noting that the mining ofBitcoin the biggest and most popular cryptocurrency in the world. It is a decentralized digital currency that enables users to make trustless peer-to-peer transactions. involves the use of computing power to solve complex mathematical problems. The miners contributors to a blockchain taking part in the process of mining. They can be professional miners or organizations with large-scale operations, or hobbyists who set up mining rigs at home or in the office. compete against each other to solve the puzzle in a process that secures the network, and whoever wins gets a reward inbitcoins.
By October 2013, after about seven months with the mining operation, the magazine had generated a profit of just over 13 million dollars. bitcoins valued at the time at around $2,000. . However, it seems that the experiment didn’t come as much of a surprise to the team of editors atWired, que se estaba preguntando qué hacer con su pequeña fortuna.
After weighing several options, including sending the funds to a charity or setting it aside for donation at a later date, the magazine opted to get rid of their coins for good. They agreed that if they were to make any profit fromBitcoin might influence their reporting on the subject, although their stance on the subject was generally skeptical. At least McMillan’s was:
In the end, the answer was obvious. The world’s most popular digital currency is really nothing more than an abstraction. So, we are destroying the private key used by our Bitcoin wallet.
“ We talked about donating it to a journalism institution, or setting it aside as a scholarship. But we decided that if we got any benefit from it, it would influence our future coverage of Bitcoin. “said Michael Calore, senior editor at Wired . “ So we simply destroyed the key, knowing full well that it might eventually be worth six or seven figures. none
A lesson in crypto, but for whom?
Indeed, the small treasure amassed at the time by the magazine is now worth around USD $750,000. The wallet a place where cryptocurrency users can store, send and receive digital assets. address a place where cryptocurrency can be sent to and from, in the form of a string of letters and numbers. deBitcoin deWiredwhich currently stores 13.3 BTC, has not been emptied and has not recorded any outflows since then.
However, for the magazine, it is now impossible to recover thosebitcoins. The money is simply gone forever, along with several thousand other coins from other users. A report from the cryptocurrency data firmChainalysispublished in January estimated that about 20% of the more than 18 million people in theBitcoin are lost forever.
In fact, it seems that, in all its disbelief, the publication wanted nothing to do withBitcoin in the future, even considering the possibility of its price increase.Wired made sure he had done his job well when it came to losing forever the 64-digit alphanumeric alphanumeric phrases consist of both letters and numerals, or characters. key that protected hisbitcoins. To corroborate this, he consulted with Stefan Antonovich the then chief engineer.
“ Breaking in the world of cryptocurrencies, breaking the forward compatibility of cryptoassets is seen in hard forks of a cryptocurrency. that protection through brute force would take an unimaginable amount of time.There are three times more possible combinations than atoms in the observable universe “Antonowicz said. The company also consulted with other security the term securities refers to a fungible and tradable financial instrument that carries a type of monetary value. experts who came to the same conclusion: the bitcoins are lost forever.
This week, some users in Reddit who commented on the anecdote called the magazine arrogant, others called the actions stupid. Meanwhile, there were some who thanked the magazine for making theBitcoin and another group that thinks it’s a lesson. Will he have learnt the lesson?Wired something about cryptocurrency or will you continue to think of it as an “abstraction”?
- Student finds his lost keys and recovers 127 BTC earning over $4.2 million USD
- James Howells threw away $60 million in bitcoins due to carelessness
- Tuenti founder, who was tortured to steal his BTC, changes previous version and says they did not succeed in stealing them
Sources: Wired , Wired , Wired ,
Article by Hannah Estefania Perez /DiarioBitcoin
Image from Unsplash edited in Canva
