Man Throws Away $7.2 Million Bitcoin Stash, Now Buried In Landfill

[The Rogue Wolf]

At first I thought he was an idiot for binning $7.2 mil but then I realised he's a moron for not wiping his HDD before binning it. Or better yet, placing a nail and a hammer through it.

Thank you for saying this so that I didn't have to. A fool and his (virtual) money are soon parted.

 

[AgentNein]

This is one of those things that finally makes me feel old. Like my grandmother fifteen years or so ago when I tried to explain the internet to her.

Bitcoins. I still don't really get it.

 

[juchmis]

At first I thought he was an idiot for binning $7.2 mil but then I realised he's a moron for not wiping his HDD before binning it. Or better yet, placing a nail and a hammer through it.

Thank you for saying this so that I didn't have to. A fool and his (virtual) money are soon parted.

It's digital money.

virtual money

Snazzy PR move Bitcoin, but not very plausible.

Digital money. If it's fake show it's fake. Until then you're as bad or worse because at least this comes from a somewhat legitimate news source.

Aren't "bitcoins" just another word for "credits"?

The thing is, once you lose access to your bitcoins, they are forever lost. No one will ever be able to claim them. They're gone for good.

Essentially yes, but it should be noted that it is trivial to create a Brainwallet (make it good!) or just print a paper wallet QR code. All you need to claim your coins is the private key to match the public key which owns the coins, and an updated blockchain (20 gigs?). You don't even need the blockchain if you use a web based wallet where the Bitcoin daemon runs remotely.

More excuses for people to spread Bitcoin propaganda. Other than the Bitcoin Mining code being snuck into competitive play this stuff isn't game related. So why is a Gaming Website hocking this kind of story? To sucker more people in. Bitbulbs 2.0 mania is getting out of hand.

All this is Tulip Mania and this article is no different then the spam people send out to get more people into whatever pyramid scam that has suckered them.

What's going to happen is this latest Surge is going to Crash some time in December.
The next surge will happen 3 months later followed by a crash.
The next 1 month later followed by a crash.
Then a week later so the Crash won't look as much as a crash but leveling out.
Then a day later.
Then a min later
Then an infinite number of surges on that single day causing a Finite-Time Singularity.
Then Tulip Bulb 2.0 crash and burn.

Enjoy the ensuing depression.

I'm guessing you got burned at some point by not being smart with your money. Day trading accounts for maybe 30% of the movement of cryptocoins. Truth is, more crypto is used as a currency than fiat currencies now. Most fiat exists in the form of debt (more than half of it actually). Similarly, less than 5% of crypto is estimated to be used for illegal purposes these days. That's actually lower than the % of US dollars used for illegal things.

Crypto are not stocks, they are currency, more so than most purported currencies.

As if bitcoins hadn't been proven to be a stupid enough idea already.

Exactly. I find it very hard to feel sorry for this guy when what he lost was an imaginary pile of autism kroner. It cost him nothing besides some CPU cycles and some electricity to generate them in the first place, and the only reason they are "worth" that much is raw, blind speculation. Even if they were recoverable, would he be able to find enough buyers to convert all of them into a currency that is backed by something more tangible than the word of a bunch shady libertarian internet people? Remember kids, a currency's market value is only worth as much as people are willing to pay for it, which in bitcoin's case has proven to be wildly variable and prone to crashes.

Good job missing every facet of the cryptocurrency invention. Cryptocurrencies are highly experimental. They're less than 4 years old at this point, younger than that if you figure hardly anyone knew what the hell Bitcoins were in 2009.

Your libertarian point doesn't exactly pan out when so many of the cryptocurrency supporters are leftists, in Europe and Japan extremely left actually.

As fewer and fewer people treat cryptocurrencies as stocks the prices stabilize.

Don't be mad that your fiats are always inflating. At least with Bitcoin I have a miniscule CHANCE at an increase in value.

 

[Strazdas]

Who the hell throws away hard drives?
And even then, what moron you need to be to throw electronics into regular garbage bin.

Also im sure there will be more than 15 policemen digging for it now once the news have spread. after all there are hundreds of homeless peopel donig it already to begin with.

More excuses for people to spread Bitcoin propaganda. Other than the Bitcoin Mining code being snuck into competitive play this stuff isn't game related. So why is a Gaming Website hocking this kind of story? To sucker more people in. Bitbulbs 2.0 mania is getting out of hand.

All this is Tulip Mania and this article is no different then the spam people send out to get more people into whatever pyramid scam that has suckered them.

What's going to happen is this latest Surge is going to Crash some time in December.
The next surge will happen 3 months later followed by a crash.
The next 1 month later followed by a crash.
Then a week later so the Crash won't look as much as a crash but leveling out.
Then a day later.
Then a min later
Then an infinite number of surges on that single day causing a Finite-Time Singularity.
Then Tulip Bulb 2.0 crash and burn.

Enjoy the ensuing depression.

id be careful with such predictions. We said the same about bitcoins 2 years ago. we said the same about gold 2 years before it crashed. yet people seems to be more gullible than ever now.
Also i kinda regret hopnig for a crash and not buying those bitcoins back in 2011, i could have turned my savings into 5x higher amount now. oh well.

To who ever finds it, don't give it back.

Mechanical HDD's aren't exactly sturdy, I doubt it's still operational after all that time on the dump.

doesnt need to be operational, only needs to be possible to extract the data from the disc tape.

It cost him nothing besides some CPU cycles and some electricity to generate them in the first place, and the only reason they are "worth" that much is raw, blind speculation. Even if they were recoverable, would he be able to find enough buyers to convert all of them into a currency that is backed by something more tangible than the word of a bunch shady libertarian internet people? Remember kids, a currency's market value is only worth as much as people are willing to pay for it, which in bitcoin's case has proven to be wildly variable and prone to crashes.

Maybe we shouldnt pay for computers either because all it takes is some assembly tie and electricity right?
We have no currencies backed in something nowadays. Gold standart is dead. and for good reason. Its just that people trust government promises of liquidity more than internet mining conference promises. but both of those are still grounded on promises only.

Plus the only things my friends use them on are cocaine and firearms. Probably not the best combo ever...

The whole point of bitcoin is unregulated, untraceable currency. Yes it can be used for shady things, though research ahs sohwn that surprisingly that is not used for it more than actual cash.

This is one of those things that finally makes me feel old. Like my grandmother fifteen years or so ago when I tried to explain the internet to her.

Bitcoins. I still don't really get it.

its not hard. you do calcualtions (password cracking?) on your GPU (lets face it, GPU does much more than CPU now, and AMD ones are much more applicable for bitcoin algorythms) and you get paid for it. Except that instead of regular money you get paid bitcoins, which you can cash in in certain sites or pay for services. Sort of like any other currency, except this one is unregulated and highly unstable.

I feel bad for the guy, that everyone's getting on him and calling the dude an 'idiot'. We all make mistakes.

We all make mistakes, but throwing a hdd into a regular bin without checking whats inside or wiping it? no, we dont.

How would he know that a hard drive would be worth more money then whatever the average bear could afford in his/her life?

By looking whats inside the hard drive?

 

[Kuilui]

Sheesh it hurts me bad enough not getting into bitcoins when it started because it sounded so massively idiotic and unregulated I laughed at it and carried on with my day. This poor guy though, if I was him I'd be... in a pretty bad way. That'll haunt you forever.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

And even then, what moron you need to be to throw electronics into regular garbage bin.

Uh, like 90% of all Americans, at least. We can't even be assed to recycle our pop bottles, let alone our biohazardous electronics.

its not hard. you do calcualtions (password cracking?) on your GPU (lets face it, GPU does much more than CPU now, and AMD ones are much more applicable for bitcoin algorythms) and you get paid for it. Except that instead of regular money you get paid bitcoins, which you can cash in in certain sites or pay for services. Sort of like any other currency, except this one is unregulated and highly unstable.

So basically you make this money by being part of a hackers' botnet? As if this weren't shady enough already.

 

[VaderMan92]

I'm always amused when bitcoin supporters throw around the statement that less bitcoin is used in illicit transactions than actual money. Could this perhaps be that bitcoin is nowhere near as prevalent as real money? Or is it simply the fact that most drug lords and international arms dealers wont accept bitcoin? Also trying to change bitcoin into something you could actually spend is where you could get caught easily (especially if we are talking about the revenue of a large criminal enterprise) so the sheer overall uselessness of the currency itself protects it from being used illicitly.

 

[Ruzinus]

That's not how proof works sonny.

Um, yes it is.

Randomly suggesting conspiracies for plausible stories is how crazy works.

The immense and so obvious that it's difficult to be kind about it difference between this and "girlfriend in Canada" is that losing $7M doesn't in any way come across as an attempt to be cool.

 

[Strazdas]

And even then, what moron you need to be to throw electronics into regular garbage bin.

Uh, like 90% of all Americans, at least. We can't even be assed to recycle our pop bottles, let alone our biohazardous electronics.

its not hard. you do calcualtions (password cracking?) on your GPU (lets face it, GPU does much more than CPU now, and AMD ones are much more applicable for bitcoin algorythms) and you get paid for it. Except that instead of regular money you get paid bitcoins, which you can cash in in certain sites or pay for services. Sort of like any other currency, except this one is unregulated and highly unstable.

So basically you make this money by being part of a hackers' botnet? As if this weren't shady enough already.

Very sad then, our recycling containers are always full (its hard to use them because so so many people do that emptying them twice a week isnt fast enough) and we got containers (like shipping containers) for electronics, and if its soemthing heavier all you need is to call and they will pick it up for free and some even pay (admitedly very small) fee based on weight. Thats because recycling is a very profitable business.

Well not necessarely that shady. password cracking was just a guess as we dont actually know what the calculations are used for. However we can assume there isnt much of a choice where a single block of calculation is so hard that it would take machines specifically designed for this half a month to crack. Also the gradual difficulty increase with password security increase in the world is a correlation (not causation, but possible theory). For all we know we could be curing cancer with the mining too, but thats doubtful.
The currency itself is not really that shady at all. Its actually quite open, just unregulated and untracable.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

To who ever finds it, don't give it back.

Mechanical HDD's aren't exactly sturdy, I doubt it's still operational after all that time on the dump.

You could still get data off of it. It would cost hundreds to thousands depending on the condition of the drive but if the potential payout is 7.2 mil, then fuck I would shell out the cash.