<p>No, it's not <em>definitively</em> possible to determine ownership of bitcoins.</p>

<p>It may be possible to identify miner reward addresses that are inactively used, but accumulated regularly at one point. Search for addresses with a large balance, the outputs of which have never been spent or have a large amount of unspent outputs.</p>

<p>It <em>may</em> be possible to find patterns in early mining, up until pooled mining came into existence. Search for blocks relayed by the same IP address, but at irregular intervals. This <em>may</em> indicate solo miners who "tried it out" but lost their keys or are in fact sitting on their wallets. This may only be possible through Blockchain.info's records, because the relay address is not preserved in the blockchain.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-12T01:13:59.787Z
2013-11-12T01:13:59.787Z
Colin Dean
<p>Could someone guess on the most likely current Bitcoin ownership distribution? Are most bitcoins still owned by (early?) mining enthusiasts who are waiting for the price to go even higher?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-11T14:27:00.067Z
I think there is a slight confusion in your question: Hopefully, not the Bitcoins own miners, but either Bitcoiners own miners (as in mining rigs) or miners own Bitcoins. :)
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-12T01:06:53.120Z
Edit in trying to save the question for non-speculative answer.
Colin Dean
<mining-reward><history><market><wealth-distribution>
Is it possible to determine Bitcoin ownership distribution?
Kozuch
# Is it possible to determine Bitcoin ownership distribution?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-11-11)

Could someone guess on the most likely current Bitcoin ownership distribution? Are most bitcoins still owned by (early?) mining enthusiasts who are waiting for the price to go even higher?

**Tags:** mining-reward, history, market, wealth-distribution

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I think there is a slight confusion in your question: Hopefully, not the Bitcoins own miners, but either Bitcoiners own miners (as in mining rigs) or miners own Bitcoins. :)  
> **username_2**: Edit in trying to save the question for non-speculative answer.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-11-12. Score: 1

No, it's not *definitively* possible to determine ownership of bitcoins.

It may be possible to identify miner reward addresses that are inactively used, but accumulated regularly at one point. Search for addresses with a large balance, the outputs of which have never been spent or have a large amount of unspent outputs.

It *may* be possible to find patterns in early mining, up until pooled mining came into existence. Search for blocks relayed by the same IP address, but at irregular intervals. This *may* indicate solo miners who "tried it out" but lost their keys or are in fact sitting on their wallets. This may only be possible through Blockchain.info's records, because the relay address is not preserved in the blockchain.


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