Bitcoin, the virtual currency that has gained plenty of attention in recent times, is back in the news, but with a rather unfortunate twist to it. No, I am not referring to its value dropping to less than a dollar, but rather, one man who has spent a few years (since 2009) to mine more than 7,500 Bitcoins, might not be able to receive a single cent for all his effort. According to The Guardian, a certain James Howells of Wales claimed that he threw away an unwanted hard drive which was first installed in a Dell notebook four years back, and that notebook’s main purpose was to mine Bitcoins.
Three years ago, the notebook decided to give up the ghost, and while he took apart the machine for its parts, the hard drive remained in a drawer until he threw it away this summer without realizing the value of its contents. Howells, unfortunately, has no backups available on any of his other drives or USB flash drives. Howells even made the trip to the landfill site located near Newport, Wales in order to look for at least $7.5 million worth of Bitcoins in his hard drive but to no avail. Poor fellow, we hope that he has a slice of fortune that would help turn the situation around.
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