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Bitcoins mined in 2009 first moved in 11 years

Bitcoins mined in 2009 first moved in 11 years

On the 20th of May 2020, 40 and later ten more Bitcoin were sent from a wallet that has been dormant since 2009. The transfer sparked rumours that the protocol's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, had returned, and a market sell-off occurred, pushing the price downwards from €8,900 to €8,500.

While it is practically impossible to prove whether this transaction was done by the man, woman or group itself, one thing is sure. These Bitcoins were among the first to be mined and originated from the block number 3,654. At the time of writing, we are at block 631,280.

The transaction, worth €420.000 could be done by any of the miners who were already present on the network in 2009. The Bitcoins were the first inactive coins mined in 2009 to be moved since 2017.

Most apparent proof that Satoshi did not send these coins is the argument of the Patoshi Pattern. Cryptocurrency security researcher Lerner identified a pattern among the hash of a single early day miner. The suspicion is that this miner was Satoshi himself. Lerner then identified every block mined by this miner, the 50 Bitcoins that were moved this Wednesday were not among the coins originating from a block with the Patoshi Pattern.