Bitcoin threw away hard drive
In fact, this form of currency is still used today! In Italy, the Credito Emiliano bank accepts huge wheels of Parmigiana-Reggiana as collateral for loans.
In the last decade, cryptocurrency has had a major breakthrough and has become increasingly common in everyday life. One of the most popular cryptocurrency is bitcoin. This digital currency is part of a worldwide payment system that allows its users to mine bitcoin and blocks, and either invest, or exchange them for products, services, and even other forms of currency. This increase in usage has since been adopted by the modern world, with more and more companies, businesses and merchants accepting bitcoin as valid payment.
People who invested just a small amount of money when it was first launched could now be worth millions because of the ultra-rapid increase in its value. Although bitcoin has served itself well for millions of users, it has also proved devastating for some. Instead, he threw a digital wallet full of the popular digital currency, bitcoin. So who is the man who lost his bitcoin? In , the IT worker decided to mine the cryptocurrency.
Like other bitcoin owners, James used expensive computer equipment to run a program on his Dell XPS N17 laptop to generate the digital money. He ran the program for a week before his girlfriend became incensed with the loud noise, and he was forced to stop.
At the time, bitcoin was an alien currency to much of the world. It was a relatively new concept, and very few people were entertaining the cryptocurrency in their daily lives. However, James had a feeling that bitcoin would be the future of technology. He recognized that the internet, Google, Facebook and other major internet companies were soaring ahead, and knew that bitcoin would make it big.
As he mined the bitcoin, James chose to keep them on a digital hard drive — rather than keep them on his laptop. At the time, he believed this to be the safest way to keep his money. This was all well and good, but James did not make any copies or back up his information, something he would later regret. After mining his 7, bitcoin, James got caught up in the pace of the world and forgot all about his digital wallet. He had a family, he renovated a house, and became a family man. Nevertheless, James did still use his laptop — that is, until a fateful day in As he worked on his laptop, he took a sip of lemonade, before accidentally spilling it all over his technology.
It had served it well, but it was time to part ways. He took the laptop apart and sold it online for scraps. Thankfully, he kept the hard drive with the cryptocurrency on it, and kept it safe in his desk drawer.
For the next couple of years, James went about his life and kept his digital wallet safely in a drawer. However, in , the IT worker decided to have a clear out of his house — and without realizing it, he threw the hard drive into the trash. At the time, James had no idea what he had done, and had no idea how much the price of bitcoin would rise. After searching his house high and low, he had to finally come to the stark conclusion that he had thrown away his wealth.
As he realized what he had done, James tried to rectify his mistake. Although he no longer had the hard drive with the digital wallet on it, he hoped his USB sticks and his other hard drives might have had information or files that would allow him to retrieve his bitcoin. He searched the depths of his broken laptop and technological information to find any form of a backup file — but there was none.
He had thrown away the only door into his bitcoin fortune. As the months wore on, James became increasingly annoyed with his actions. Although he could not change the past, the future was definitely changing. Since , bitcoin has continued to grow as a form of digital currency.
More and more businesses and high-profile businessmen are now avoiding the banks and investing in bitcoin. Because of this, the price of bitcoin increases on a daily basis, and mining the cryptocurrency has become even more expensive — making it less easily accessible for the modern man, such as James.
This price increase meant James could not mine anymore. It was all or nothing. Three or four months after James believes he threw out the hard drive containing 7, bitcoin, he decided that he needed to get proactive. So, he took a trip to the local landfill site to try and find the hard drive with his own hands. He spoke to the workers at the site, and explained his situation. Although they were sympathetic, they had something to show him. They took James out further into the landfill site, to an area the size of a soccer field, and explained that it would be in that area, around three to four feet down below.
They will never be able to be spent. It's not hard to think that at some point hackers will acquire the technology to crack those private keys. That's actually pretty unlikely. Bitcoin uses a bit key. Even an enormous computer using all of the energy the sun gives off could not calculate the number of possible combinations, even if the computer had several decades to do so. In other words, lost bitcoins stay lost. The hard drive ended up in a soccer field sized landfill in Wales buried beneath tons of recyclable waste.
Howells reportedly threw away the hard drive by accident when he was cleaning up his desk. I really did have that. I don't have an exact date, the only time period I can give—and I've been racking my own brains—is between June 20 th and August 10 th.