A man has shared his grief after he unknowingly threw out a portable hard drive seven years ago which is now worth $4.8 million.Campbell Simpson, editor of technology website Gizmodo Australia, says he missed out on incredible riches because he jettisoned a piece hardware containing 1400 Bitcoins, a form of internet currency.Seven years later, the digital market for Bitcoin skyrocketed and Mr Simpson's seemingly insignificant internet cash, which he bought for $25, is now worth millions of dollars.Campbell Simpson (pictured) says he threw out a hard drive containing Bitcoins now worth $4.8 million Bitcoins are internet currency that have skyrocketed in price over the last few yearsThe Sydney journalist ruefully penned an article about his near-miss at achieving remarkable wealth on Gizmodo and described how he came to throw out his $4.8 million hard drive in the bin.Bitcoin, which is online currency linked to a user's cyber wallet, is payment used to trade on the internet and is accepted by many businesses.In 2010 Mr Simpson's 1400 Bitcoins were only worth around $25, but now, one Bitcoin is worth AUD$3221.'At

the start of 2010, Bitcoin trading wasn't even really a thing.It was hard to find anywhere that would accept BTC,' Mr Simpson wrote.'Iused the hard drive for a whole bunch of things.Storing pirated music and movies and TV series, a portfolio of my best tech writing work, all my uni assignments, photos of friends and family and the couple of holidays that I'd taken.'Butas he was preparing to move homes, Mr Simpson did the unthinkable.In 2010 Mr Simpson's (left) 1400 Bitcoins were only worth around $25, but now, one Bitcoin is worth AUD$3221 'At the start of 2010, Bitcoin trading wasn't even really a thing.It was hard to find anywhere that would accept BTC,' Mr Simpson said 'I think I might be a touch emotionally fragile right now,' the journalist said after discovering his lost profits 'I threw away $4.8million': Mr Simpson realised his 1400 Bitcoins would now be worth millions'I didn't need, or care about, anything on it.So I threw it away,' he said.When Bitcoin usage on the internet started to explode, Mr Simpson regularly - albeit bitterly - checked how much his 1400 was worth.Upon realising his Bitcoin collection would have been worth $4000 several months later, Mr Simpson was slightly annoyed.But this month Bitcoin reached an historic high price, making his once-measly hard drive of worthless internet currency a $4.8 million goldmine.'This

is probably one of the stupidest things, in hindsight, that I've ever done.And I've done a lot of stupid things a lot of times,' Mr Simpson said.When Bitcoin usage on the internet started to explode, Mr Simpson regularly - albeit bitterly - checked how much his 1400 coins were worth But this month Bitcoin reached an historic high price, making his once-measly hard drive of worthless internet currency a $4.8 million goldmine 'This is probably one of the stupidest things, in hindsight, that I've ever done,' he wrote Mr Simpson said he could have even bought a house in Sydney if he kept the hard driveThe tech writer says he has been offered advice on how to potentially retrieve the long-gone hard drive, but he admits he won't bother trying to find it.'Ipython send bitcoindon't even especially to find those Bitcoin, though.asic bitcoin hardware uk

I'm really happy with my life at the moment.I don't need them,' he wrote.'I'mgenerally pretty easygoing in life, I think, and I can laugh about it for like 95 per cent of the time, but also, man.bitcoin faucet of canadainsisting he is not in dire need of the megabucks hard drive, Mr Simpson lamented the type of lifestyle he could live if he had $4.8 million - and says he could have even bought a house in Sydney,'I could have bought a house.china bitcoin rulingI could have moved around the world or bought a goddamn yacht or something,' he added.bitcoin armory apiBuried somewhere under four feet of mud and rubbish, in the Docksway landfill site near Newport, Wales, in a space about the size of a football pitch is a computer hard drive worth more than £4m.bitcoin gizmodo

It belonged to James Howells, who threw it out when he was clearing up his desk in mid-summer and discovered the part, rescued from a defunct Dell laptop.He found it in a drawer and put it in a bin.And then last Friday he realised that it held a digital wallet with 7,500 Bitcoins created for almost nothing in 2009 - and then worth about the same."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, who works in IT, told the Guardian."I don't have an exact date, the only time period I can give – and I've been racking my own brains – is between 20 June and 10 August.At the time he obliviously threw them away, the 7,500 Bitcoins on the hard-drive were worth around £500,000.Since then, the cryptocurrency's value has soared, passing $1,000 on Wednesday afternoon.Although Bitcoins have recently become part of the zeitgeist – with Virgin saying it will accept the currency for its Virgin Galactic flights, and central bankers considering its position in finance seriously – Howells generated his in early 2009, when the currency was only known in tech circles.

At that time, a few months after its launch, it was comparatively easy to "mine" the digital currency, effectively creating money by computing: Howells ran a program on his laptop for a week to generate his stash.Nowadays, doing the same would require enormously expensive computing power.That lost hard drive, though, contains the cryptographic "private key" that is needed to be able to access and spend the Bitcoins; without it, the "money" is lost forever.And Howells didn't have a backup.Howells stopped mining after a week because his girlfriend complained that the laptop was getting too noisy and hot while it ran the programs to solve the complex mathematical problems needed to create new Bitcoins.In 2010, the Dell XPS N1710 broke after he accidentally tipped lemonade on it, so he dismantled it for parts.Most were thrown away or sold, but he kept the hard drive in a desk drawer for the next three years – until that fateful summer day when he had the clearout.Howells didn't realise his mistake until Friday.

Since then, he said, "I've searched high and low.I've tried to retrieve files from all of my USB sticks, from all of my hard drives.I've tried everything just in case I had a backup file, or had copied it by accident.He even went down to the landfill site itself."I had a word with one of the guys down there, explained the situation.And he actually took me out in his truck to where the landfill site is, the current ditch they're working on.It's about the size of a football field, and he said something from three or four months ago would be about three or four feet down."After he stopped mining Bitcoins in 2009, Howells hadn't given the currency much thought."I hadn't kept up on Bitcoin, I'd been distracted.I'd had a couple of kids since then, I'd been doing the house up, and forgot about it until it was in the news again."Howells considered retrieving the hard drive himself, but was told that "even for the police to find something, they need a team of 15 guys, two diggers, and all the personal protection equipment.

So for me to fund that, it's not possible without the guarantee of money at the end."As such, he's resigned to never getting the virtual money back.It's available," he said.He has also set up a Bitcoin wallet for donations aimed at recovering the hard drive."If they were to offer me a share, fair enough," he said."If they were to go out and find it for themselves … it's my mistake throwing the hard drive out, at the end of the day."A spokeswoman from Newport council emphasised that any treasure hunters turning up to the landfill site wouldn't be allowed in, but "obviously, if it was easily retrieved, we'd return it.""I'm at the point where it's either laugh about it or cry about it," Howells says."Why aren't I out there with a shovel now?I think I'm just resigned to never being able to find it."Nonetheless, he continues to believe, as he did four years ago, that Bitcoin is the future of money."I still think it's going to go higher.I just think it's the next step of the internet, which is why I mined it in the first place.