James Howells' digital currency worth hardly nothing when he got it in 2009. Now his 7,500 bitcoins are buried on a November 29, 2013 1:19 AM PST James Howells lost 7,500 worth of bitcoins when he discarded an old hard drive. He's shown here in a BBC interview. (Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) A man from Newport, UK, is searching the dump for a hard drive he threw away despite its having $7.5 million worth of bitcoins stored away. Bitcoins are a digital currency whose value has benefitted from intense attention and speculative investing. They can be stored as data in digital wallets using online services, mobile phones, or computer hard drives. Related stories Bitcoin value soars above $1,000 on Mt. Gox exchange Retailers set to offer Bitcoin Black Friday deals The 404 1,392: Where we're fuzzy on the science (podcast) Turnabout is fair play: Bitcoins mined with Adafruit's miner used to buy Adafruit products Bitcoin mining dispute ends with $1M settlement James Howells chose the latter approach when he stored 7,500 bitcoins away in 2009, when they were worth a trifling fraction of Bitcoins' current value of more that $1,000 apiece. But he threw the old hard drive away, and now it's likely buried several feet deep in trash in a landfill the size of a football field, according to a BBC report. He's searching the landfill, but lacks the funds for a serious hunt. "The truth is I haven't got the funds or ability to make that happen at the moment without a definite pay cheque at the end of it," he told the BBC. Bitcoins, being just data, can be backed up, but he couldn't find any duplicate copies of his bitcoins, he said. He's not the first to forget about a lot of very valuable bits. But happily for a Norwegian man named Kristoffer Koch, he remembered his 2009 stash of $25 worth of bitcoins in time and cashed them out when they had grown in value to about $848,000. Via The Verge
James Howells' digital currency worth hardly nothing when he got it in 2009. Now his 7,500 bitcoins are buried on a
James Howells lost 7,500 worth of bitcoins when he discarded an old hard drive. He's shown here in a BBC interview.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
A man from Newport, UK, is searching the dump for a hard drive he threw away despite its having $7.5 million worth of bitcoins stored away.
Bitcoins are a digital currency whose value has benefitted from intense attention and speculative investing. They can be stored as data in digital wallets using online services, mobile phones, or computer hard drives.
Related stories
- Bitcoin value soars above $1,000 on Mt. Gox exchange
- Retailers set to offer Bitcoin Black Friday deals
- The 404 1,392: Where we're fuzzy on the science (podcast)
- Turnabout is fair play: Bitcoins mined with Adafruit's miner used to buy Adafruit products
- Bitcoin mining dispute ends with $1M settlement
James Howells chose the latter approach when he stored 7,500 bitcoins away in 2009, when they were worth a trifling fraction of Bitcoins' current value of more that $1,000 apiece. But he threw the old hard drive away, and now it's likely buried several feet deep in trash in a landfill the size of a football field, according to a BBC report.
He's searching the landfill, but lacks the funds for a serious hunt.
"The truth is I haven't got the funds or ability to make that happen at the moment without a definite pay cheque at the end of it," he told the BBC.
Bitcoins, being just data, can be backed up, but he couldn't find any duplicate copies of his bitcoins, he said.
He's not the first to forget about a lot of very valuable bits. But happily for a Norwegian man named Kristoffer Koch, he remembered his 2009 stash of $25 worth of bitcoins in time and cashed them out when they had grown in value to about $848,000.
Via The Verge
