[bakoo]

What a waste. The majority of people on this planet have a low enough income to be able to retire comfortably with a payout of that size.

[jampekka]

Nothing was wasted. Currency is not a resource, it's a kind of debt arrangement.

Or as more commonly put: you can't eat money.

[INTPenis]

But what if the BTC was traded in for real money and donated to a charity?

[jampekka]

Maybe they don't believe that charity is a good thing? Or that they should have the power to decide what's a good thing?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/charity/against_1.shtml

[b112]

But what if the time you just spent typing that, was instead, donated to charity?

This question can be asked about anything. Like my new car! Or that I ate a steak instead of chicken.

[pwdisswordfishc]

Currency is not a resource, it's a kind of debt arrangement.

[INTPenis]

So? You can still trade the BTC in for money and do more good with it than just dumping it into /dev/null.

[jampekka]

Now they instead gave the opportunity for other bitcoin holders to do good with the /dev/null'ed coins.

It's like giving up quota in a shared storage system for all others (in proportion to their quotas). And not like e.g. throwing away food or destructing buildings.

[crazygringo]

But the point is that you can do far more good by sending the money to some of the people who need it most, those in the lowest economic positions.

Rather than effectively sending it to the "average" Bitcoin user, which is definitely not in the lowest economic position -- and whatever the average Bitcoin holder spends on charity, it's only a small percent.

This is why Bill Gates spends his money on the Gates Foundation where it's designed to help those who need it most, rather than lighting all his money on fire so that the deflationary impact will help everyone in proportion to their savings.

[Scarblac]

It's not actually wasted, the money went to people who held the 26.9 BTC before this transaction.

[ioblomov]

And, assuming Satoshi’s is a dead wallet, every other BTC in circulation becomes worth more.

[hnthrowaway0328]

Yeah, could actually be a good thing, if those BTC were sold by multiple ordinary people.

[bakoo]

The 26.9 now dead bitcoins could have done a lot more good had they been sent to a charity or nonprofit instead.

[jampekka]

Maybe the transactor didn't deem that they should have the power to decide what's "a lot more good"?

There are a lot of "charities" that IMHO do mostly "bad". Also charity itself is problematic: should those with money get to decide how and what problems are focused on?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/charity/against_1.shtml

[Hamuko]

What charities take Bitcoin?

[nullc]

Plenty do, https://www.eff.org/pages/other-ways-give-and-donor-support

All charities do if you open a Fidelity Charitable account and fund it with Bitcoin. :)

In the US it is tax adventitious to donate appreciated assets, including Bitcoin. (or even especially bitcoin as few other assets have appreciated as much)

It's often not highly promoted-- usually posed on an 'other ways to give' catch-all as it appears to have a slightly negative effect on conversion rates (I've heard there is some evidence that accepting bitcoin sends prospective donors off on a rabbit hole of learning about Bitcoin).

[master-lincoln]

https://thegivingblock.com/resources/nonprofits-accepting-cr...

[lxgr]

Hopefully every well-managed one.

Regardless what your views on Bitcoin are, accepting donations of appreciated assets just makes a lot of sense from a tax optimization perspective: The donor gets a write-off of the current market value, while the (nonprofit) charity can sell the appreciated assets without incurring capital gains or income tax.

At least that’s the case for stock donations in the US.

[voidee]

WCK is one of the best run charities providing food in otherwise hopeless catastrophes and wars. https://thegivingblock.com/donate/world-central-kitchen/

[lazyasciiart]

At least a few that I know, actually! Example: https://msf.org.au/donate/crypto

[majewsky]

All of them after you convert it into fiat through an exchange.

[lxgr]

Hopefully before, since otherwise you might end up paying a totally avoidable tax bill.

[hackerlight]

If you burn currency it's not wasted, it deflates the remaining currency in proportion, so in effect it's gifting to other holders. Assuming it's never used after this.

[BeFlatXIII]

Just wait until you learn about the time The K Foundation burnt £1 mil in cash.