GM Bitcoiners,
Literally…
There is 8000 Bitcoin lying amidst a mountain of trash.
Here’s what happened…
“I wish I’d discovered Bitcoin back in 2009!” – Literally everyone
James Howells from South Wales was ‘that guy’.
He was among the first to mine Bitcoin but accidentally disposed of his hard drive with the keys to 8000 Bitcoin back in 2013.
It was taken to a local landfill and remains there to this day. The current value hovers around £140 million at the time of writing.
James can’t go there without being arrested, so he’s come up with a plan to get the coins recovered… he just needs to convince the local council. They have denied entry since 2013, reasoning that the “ecological risk” is too significant.
This might just be the first time someone wants to spend $11 million to look through literal trash (this plan involves AI, robot arms and even a couple of robot dogs from Boston Dynamics).
You can check it out here:
I think there are a few lessons we can learn from this…
1) Never underestimate the ability of local councils to make life unnecessarily difficult… just let the man search through some trash!
2) Stop thinking about the ‘what if’ when it comes to your Bitcoin journey. If most of us had discovered Bitcoin before we were ready, we probably would have sold early or lost the keys. That’s just the way it is.
3) Take care of your Bitcoin as if it’s worth 100x what it is today because if it’s going where we think it is… it could be. If the price goes up sharply, will you feel confident in your current storage situation? This is HUGE for people who still haven’t taken their coins off exchanges. Bitcoin is still very early; just look at its size compared to gold.
This is also why we support auto saving at FastBitcoins. You become accustomed to volatility, buy into the network slowly, allowing you to focus on education, and it’s simple. You decide the frequency and amount; we do the rest!
Next time someone asks how much Bitcoin you have? Just say you lost it all in a landfill 😉
