Damn, New York is outrageously expensive...
In stories like this you always have to ask how many bitcoins did the person own in first place that they could offer up 50k from that stash this easily. I'd say we might have had a big ass whale with a lot more than just 50k bitcoins.
Additionally we can not really blame the seller either because the offer was $1 million below the ask price. In other words if they really wanted to invest in bitcoin they could have sold their property for $14 million fiat and then bought 3846 more bitcoins with that fiat which is an additional $0.38 billion profit ($5.38 billion total).
Also lets not forget that 2015 was mostly a bear market year and filled with lots of FUD. To the point when even by the end of the year one of bitcoin core developers, Mike Hearn spread a FUD calling bitcoin "dead"! I wouldn't really blame anybody who didn't want to touch bitcoin back then.
P.S. It is interesting to look back at all the FUD some of us have endured all these years and still kept HODLing...
Yeah, that area is really expensive based on the videos that I've watched about the rent and properties there. And I agree, we can't blame the seller for like the subtitle on that image that the seller said. It was an era where a lot of FUD, really is all over the Bitcoin space.
That's why whoever survived and able to reach to this point, holding 0.01, 0.1, 1, and more did a good job.
I thought this was going to be about the pizza transaction, and I said to myself "not again". Good to see a change for once. Maybe as time goes by, people will unearth more of these exotic kinds of transactions from when Bitcoin was still in the early age.
Anyway, I don't think it mattered whether or not it went through, more than the fact that a two-bedroom NYC apartment sells for 14 million dollars? WTF? Was he trying to rent out floors on a skyscraper or something?
AFAIK, apartments there are really expensive ever since and I think a year or two ago or so there was a sudden drop in rent there. I don't know about the actual value of properties there but probably retained their value still.
The fact that he could buy something with a digital currency would have been more fascinating to him than the price of Bitcoin. This isn't just about Bitcoin but any tradable commodity like Gold, Silver, and even more primitive the land prices. Unlike gold & silver bitcoin is not a physical commodity which makes it perfect to appear in the headlines. I'm sure many of us would have stories like this if you've been on the forum since the beginning. I've won a lot of luck-based games on the forum or other simple tasks where getting paid 1 BTC plus wasn't a big deal.
If the deal went successfully, it's probably all over the headlines and will also create hype on that time. But it was an uncertain time way back then and the guy who holds a lot of Bitcoins probably just encouraged to do it since it's a million transaction but his offer was way below the selling price.
And about those tasks and so, I remember this:
Get 5 free bitcoins from freebitcoins.appspot.comFew people would have accepted Bitcoin in that amount 10 years ago, especially considering that the Mt.Gox case was still fresh and the price had dropped from $1100 to only about $200. I remember that time well because that's when I bought my first BTC and the people I talked to about told me it was a scam and to sell them as soon as possible.
I don't blame anyone who turned down the offer then, because there are those who would still turn it down today. According to some statistics, only about 5% of people are in some way involved in cryptocurrencies, and of that number even less directly in BTC.
Very few and if it's during the time when these exchange fiascos, there's less trust on Bitcoin that makes them shoo any offer related to it.
