<p>Of course, because Bitcoin is (mostly) anonymous, we can't know for sure who has been sending these, let alone their reasons.  But some guesses:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>People donating money to Satoshi, since it's known to be his address.</p></li>
<li><p>Mistakes.  Satoshi's address is commonly used as an example in guides for creating transactions, etc, and it could be that some people copied the example and forgot to change the destination address.</p></li>
<li><p>Attention.  I saw some transactions with attached OP_RETURN messages, e.g. <a href="https://blockchain.info/tx/776ece649515098d56bbc60ef497e3bfe5400b7aeeda9711fcf1a4fdfac2f337" rel="noreferrer">this one</a> (see under "Output Scripts" near the bottom).  By sending to a well-known address, there is a better chance that curious people like you will stumble upon the transaction and read the message.</p></li>
<li><p>Just for lols.</p></li>
<li><p>There are altcoins and other protocols that rely on "burning" bitcoins by sending them to a well-known address with no known private key.  A variant on this would be to send the coins to Satoshi.  Either he eventually spends them (so it becomes a donation) or he doesn't (so it's a burn), but either way the parties involved probably aren't getting the coins back.  I haven't seen this variant in practice but it's conceivable that someone has tried it.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T15:36:08.663Z
2018-02-06T15:36:08.663Z
Nate Eldredge
<p>I read that Satoshi never moved or spent his coins, so I expected to see his address stay unchanged since mined. But it looks like there are lots of small transactions: e.g. in <a href="https://blockchain.info/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the first address</a> there are more than 1000 txs, and in <a href="https://blockchain.info/address/12c6DSiU4Rq3P4ZxziKxzrL5LmMBrzjrJX" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the second address</a>, there are about 65. What are those for? Who made them and why?</p>

<genesis-block><satoshi-nakamoto>
What are all the small transactions in Satoshi's address?
fluter
# What are all the small transactions in Satoshi's address?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-02-06)

I read that Satoshi never moved or spent his coins, so I expected to see his address stay unchanged since mined. But it looks like there are lots of small transactions: e.g. in [the first address](https://blockchain.info/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa) there are more than 1000 txs, and in [the second address](https://blockchain.info/address/12c6DSiU4Rq3P4ZxziKxzrL5LmMBrzjrJX), there are about 65. What are those for? Who made them and why?

**Tags:** genesis-block, satoshi-nakamoto


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-02-06. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

Of course, because Bitcoin is (mostly) anonymous, we can't know for sure who has been sending these, let alone their reasons. But some guesses:

* People donating money to Satoshi, since it's known to be his address.
* Mistakes. Satoshi's address is commonly used as an example in guides for creating transactions, etc, and it could be that some people copied the example and forgot to change the destination address.
* Attention. I saw some transactions with attached OP\_RETURN messages, e.g. [this one](https://blockchain.info/tx/776ece649515098d56bbc60ef497e3bfe5400b7aeeda9711fcf1a4fdfac2f337) (see under "Output Scripts" near the bottom). By sending to a well-known address, there is a better chance that curious people like you will stumble upon the transaction and read the message.
* Just for lols.
* There are altcoins and other protocols that rely on "burning" bitcoins by sending them to a well-known address with no known private key. A variant on this would be to send the coins to Satoshi. Either he eventually spends them (so it becomes a donation) or he doesn't (so it's a burn), but either way the parties involved probably aren't getting the coins back. I haven't seen this variant in practice but it's conceivable that someone has tried it.


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