I can't imagine the stress that goes into handling these wallets. You have 2.3 million on a computer, sure it's backed up several times, but you have 2.3 million is an artificial currency that legally amounts to nothing. You can't turn that amount of money into cash without paying 55% taxes on 100% of it because accounting doesn't exist for bitcoins, so what do you do? Just withdrawal a modest six figure salary a year to some anonymous source and leave that gigantic amount in bitcoins? The bitcoin price dropping by 1 dollar causes you to lose 60 grand, and while the vice versa also applies, there is no "long term" insurance for bitcoins because it's not a real currency. It won't last another 249329423x years, and that x could turn out to equal 5 years, you just don't know. A major sell off of bitcoins by someone causes massive deflation.
I know that the people who end up making it big are the ones who take risks in stuff like this, but jesus christ that is a little much.
The people who started mining that long ago were not in it for the money. I don't think anyone was. They were in if for the fundamental idea of what bitcoin stood for.
I would think that the kind of people who supported such an idea, enough to take the time and mine them at a loss when they were worth nothing, are content in their lives and aren't dying to cash in and get mildly rich. They are clearly in it for the long haul, and I wouldn't be surprised if they actually started donating them further down the line once a few bitcoins are enough really solve some problems.
But who knows.
