current bitcoin price $16,500
its unclear what landfill exactly the hard drive would be located, and the landfills refuse to let the man go digging for his "needle in the haystack" due to safety reasons at the dump.
Infamous Discarded Hard Drive Holding 7500 Bitcoins Would be Worth $123 Million Today
During the summer of 2013, while cleaning out his desk, a Welsh man named James Howells threw away a hard drive from his broken Dell Laptop.
Unfortunately, he realized several months later that the drive held 7,500 Bitcoin mined back in 2009. At the time, with Bitcoin approaching and finally just exceeding $1,000 in price, the scrapped hard drive would have been worth over $7 mln.
The story created a lot of hype about the rising the value of Bitcoin and the fortunes - or misfortunes - of the currency’s first miners and investors. Many of them had dabbled with the currency while it was in its infancy, only to forget about it and fail to backup their wallets.
Howells had mined those 7,500 coins himself as a hobby back when Bitcoin was a mere plaything for the technologically inclined. Howells related:
"You know when you put something in the bin, and in your head, say to yourself 'that's a bad idea'? I really did have that.”
Howells explains how he stopped mining when his girlfriend complained about the noise from the laptop and the heat it was producing. When he spilled lemonade on the laptop the following year, he dismantled it for parts. He initially kept the hard drive for a few years before finally discarding it.
Back in 2013, Howells said:
"I'm at the point where it's either laugh about it or cry about it. Why aren't I out there with a shovel now? I think I'm just resigned to never being able to find it."
Once can only imagine how the unfortunate Howells feels today.
“Don’t tell my Wife”
its unclear what landfill exactly the hard drive would be located, and the landfills refuse to let the man go digging for his "needle in the haystack" due to safety reasons at the dump.
Infamous Discarded Hard Drive Holding 7500 Bitcoins Would be Worth $123 Million Today
During the summer of 2013, while cleaning out his desk, a Welsh man named James Howells threw away a hard drive from his broken Dell Laptop.
Unfortunately, he realized several months later that the drive held 7,500 Bitcoin mined back in 2009. At the time, with Bitcoin approaching and finally just exceeding $1,000 in price, the scrapped hard drive would have been worth over $7 mln.
The story created a lot of hype about the rising the value of Bitcoin and the fortunes - or misfortunes - of the currency’s first miners and investors. Many of them had dabbled with the currency while it was in its infancy, only to forget about it and fail to backup their wallets.
Howells had mined those 7,500 coins himself as a hobby back when Bitcoin was a mere plaything for the technologically inclined. Howells related:
"You know when you put something in the bin, and in your head, say to yourself 'that's a bad idea'? I really did have that.”
Howells explains how he stopped mining when his girlfriend complained about the noise from the laptop and the heat it was producing. When he spilled lemonade on the laptop the following year, he dismantled it for parts. He initially kept the hard drive for a few years before finally discarding it.
Back in 2013, Howells said:
"I'm at the point where it's either laugh about it or cry about it. Why aren't I out there with a shovel now? I think I'm just resigned to never being able to find it."
Once can only imagine how the unfortunate Howells feels today.
“Don’t tell my Wife”
