Google defines luck as “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions”, but in reality, luck will always need a pushing hand, and that’s what we want to show you today: Good things come to those who wait…Greater things come to those who are willing to work for it. These miners took their chances and got lucky. That’s the wonderful thing about Bitcoin, anyone can be a part of it, all you need is an internet connection! Are you ready to take your chance?
3 — btcphill
2 years ago, a miner known as BTC Phill bought his first Bitcoin ASIC miner, a usb block erupter (~330mh/s). He tried solo mining with it, despite the fact that it would take him 12 years to find a block.
To his amazement, BTC Phill found a block six days after. Since then, he has bought more than 1TH/s worth of mining equipment, and hasn’t found a block since.
This is the block found by BTC Phill: click.
Nowadays many users use old ASIC miners as lottery devices, knowing that they will probably never find a block. Stories like the one from BTC Phill will make you want to do the same.
2 — Bitclub Mining operation received a 291.2409 BTC transaction fee
In April 2016, the Bitclub Mining pool mined a block that contained a 291.2409 BTC tx fee for a 0.0001 BTC transaction. Most people agreed that the user meant to do the opposite and send a 0.0001 BTC fee to pay for a 291.2409 BTC transaction. Bitclub mined that block and tried to return it to the person who sent it, although no one came forward. Many believe the reason for that is that the funds might have been stolen, since they appear to have come from a mixing service. Bitclub also informed that if the funds remained unclaimed they would be donated to a charity.
This is the block we are referring to: click.
1–90b bitcoin block
This next story doesn’t really turn out all that great for the person attempting to get lucky, but it’s still worth mentioning none the less. In 2010, 184 billion Bitcoin were generated in a transaction and sent to two different addresses, which is weird when you consider the total supply of Bitcoin that will be mined in the course of x years. These Bitcoins were not mined, they were “hacked” into existence. The problem was noticed a few hours later and an hard-fork to reverse the transaction was implemented. This hard-fork also fixed the exploited that caused the hack, and it took roughly 5 hours to fix.
0 — Unlucky Ethereum miner
An Ethereum miner reported a loss of 7,182 ETH when using the Mist wallet. The Ethers were mined overtime, according to the user and they were left untouched until the DAO creation period started. At that time, a user decided to invest in TheDAO and sent a small 1ETH transaction to test the waters. Little did he know that this transaction opened a window for a hacker that was monitoring the wallet. During a few seconds after the user unlocked the account to send the first test transaction, the user took advantage of an exploit found in Mist wallet, that stayed unlocked for a few seconds and allowed the hacker to send the +7k ETH to many wallets.
Why is this story in the top 3? It isn’t exactly lucky, right? Well, we want to remind you that in order to be lucky, you must also be vigilant! Never invest more than what you can afford and keep your funds safe!
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