Proof Of Key Day Or How To Celebrate The Tenth Anniversary Of The Genesis Block.

Back on January 3, 2009, the first block (the so-called genesis block) was mined on the bitcoin blockchain. By coding the headline of The Times as of 03/Jan/2009: Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks in the block, Sathosi Nakamoto presumably wanted to give us an important message about his critical thoughts on the incumbent financial system.

And as there are signs for a new financial crisis just around the corner mainly due to a decade of a global so-called easy money policy, we probably should celebrate the 10th anniversary of the genesis block thoughtfully.

So we definitely like how the bitcoin investor Trace Mayer proposes to celebrate the 3rd January. In his youtube video, he invites people to join in a “proof of keys” celebration. Specifically, Mayer wants people to withdraw all their crypto Tokens from third-party cryptocurrency exchanges on January 3^rd.

Mayer´s reason for that proposal is threefold.

• People can prove that their Tokens exists on the blockchain and that the exchanges are actually in possession of the user´s deposited Tokens and thereby
• ensure accountability and trustworthiness of third-party platforms.
• By doing this, people declare their ”monetary sovereignty”.

Prompting users to withdraw their Tokens and to hold their own private keys is a way for investors to become what Mayer calls ”first-class Bitcoin citizens” and prove their monetary independence.

Another quite interesting side effect of this proof of keys campaign could be that a cryptocurrency exchange run could result in some tidying up in the crypto market: As there have been suspicions that cryptocurrency exchanges are, in fact, not holding all the cryptocurrencies they claim. If this turns out to be true, proof of keys celebration could lead to a collapse of such fraudulent exchanges.

We like Mayer´s proof of key celebration idea and we think that Nakamoto Satoshi probably also likes it.