Someone Did Their Homework Guess What? The US Gov Owns One of the World's Largest Bitcoin Wallets
A digital currency that is anonymous and unregulated, bitcoin has become a symbol of libertarian ideals, such as eliminating the Federal Reserve and avoiding inflation. The U.S. government, however, is the world's largest bitcoin holder. Hold on to your hat! The US government has more than one crypto wallet!
The largest bitcoin wallet in the world, according to BitcoinRichList, which ranks the top 100 richest bitcoin addresses, contains more than 144,341 bitcoins, equivalent to roughly $86 million, according to the site. While the owners of bitcoin accounts are anonymous, the transactions are all public, and the descriptions of these transactions are all referred to as "DPR Seized Coins."
In October, the FBI shut down Silk Road, an infamous Internet-only black market, and arrested Ross William Ulbricht, who the FBI said was the owner of Silk Road, nicknamed Dread Pirate Roberts, or DPR. In August, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced that 144,336 bitcoins had been seized from Ulbricht.
There is also the first occurrence of a "DPR Seized Coins" transaction taking place on Oct. 25, the same day Bharara announced the seizure. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the Blockchain wallet belongs to the FBI.
This is just one of the government's bitcoin wallets. Another account contains 30,000 bitcoins ($18.7 million) from transactions referred to as "Silkroad Seized Coins."
In July, the Winklevoss twins made a major investment in the digital currency, claiming to own about 1 percent of all bitcoins in the world.
The person or team responsible for creating bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, remains the world's largest bitcoin holder. That person or team is also believed to have created the first 1 million bitcoins.
Ulbricht's bitcoin fortune was only about 22 percent seized by the FBI, according to a paper from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel that examined the bitcoins that the FBI seized from Ulbricht. Ulbricht and Satoshi Nakamoto were also linked by the team.
In spite of the libertarian ideals of many bitcoin supporters, the U.S. government has become a major player in the digital economy.
The blog will keep you updated on this subject. There appears to be a lot we don't know yet.
The US government became the holders of the world's largest cryptocurrency wallet, because they seized the funds, not because they employed the idea to set up a sting Bitcoin wallet!
