SALT LAKE CITY, UT - APRIL 26: A pile of Bitcoins are shown here after Software engineer Mike Caldwell minted them in his shop on April 26, 2013 in Sandy, Utah.(Photo by George Frey/Getty Images) CARDIFF, Wales (CBS DC) – A British man says he threw out a hard drive that had 7,500 bitcoins on it, worth over $7.5 million as of Wednesday.James Howells of Wales purchased the suddenly skyrocketing Internet currency for almost nothing back in 2009.He says he likely threw out the hard drive sometime over the summer, and only recently remembered what was on it.“You know when you put something in the [trash], 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.A few months after Bitcoin’s launch, Howells created a computer program to “mine” the digital currency.Fun Photos: RGIII’s 9 Faces He later spilled lemonade on that laptop, so he dismantled it for parts, keeping the hard drive in a drawer for three years.

The drive contains the cryptographic “key” that is necessary to access and spend the Bitcoins.Without that key, the “money” cannot be spent and is lost forever.It was just this past summer that he went through his belongings and threw out the hard drive, thinking it was junk.When he realized his mistake, Howells searched all his storage devices for a backup copy but could not find one.Then he went down to the landfill with the idea of digging for it, but was told it’s not as simple as going in with a shovel.“[E]ven 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.” But he’s still hopeful that someone may find the hard drive, and split the take with him.“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.” D.C.

Lottery LiveFollow and Like Us El Zol 107.9 94.7 Fresh FM WPGC 95.5 FM 106.7 The Fan Classic 94.7Ever accidentally lose a dollar?Then you count what's in your war chest, realize it's a dollar short, and kick yourself for being careless?ethereum price jump 2017Well, a British IT worker knows what that feels like—except times 7.5 million.James Howells did a really smart thing back in 2009 and started mining Bitcoin before anybody had ever heard of it.bitcoin atm romaniaHe managed to stockpile 7,500 of the magic cryptocurrency before his girlfriend made him stop.bitcoin azioni(Evidently, she thought it "was getting too noisy.")bitcoin hourly profit

Based on today's exchange rate of about $1,000 per Bitcoin, that stash is worth $7.5 million.Then, earlier this year, Howells did a really stupid thing and threw away the hard drive that contained the key he needed to access the small fortune he'd saved up.litecoin increase 2017Actually, he did two stupid things.o que significa bitcoin em inglesFirst, he spilled lemonade on his mining machine and sold it for scrap, which is why he took the hard drive out in the first place.bitcoin aktie aktuellThen he threw it in the trash.bitcoin laf gifHis $7.5 million now rests under about four feet of mud and trash at the local landfill.For all intents and purposes, the money is gone.bitcoin arbitrage

Howells can't afford to spend the money it would take to mobilize a team to dig through the landfill, and, even if he did, he probably wouldn't find the hard drive anyway."I'm at the point where it's either laugh about it or cry about it," Howells told The Guardian."Why aren't I out there with a shovel now?I think I'm just resigned to never being able to find it."Consider it a buried sacrifice to the cryptocurrency gods.[Guardian]Image via Shutterstock / littlenyA man from Newport, Wales, is searching the dump for a hard drive he threw away despite it having $7.5 million worth of bitcoins.Bitcoins are a digital currency whose value has benefited from intense attention and speculative investing.They can be stored as data in digital wallets using online services, mobile phones, or computer hard drives.James Howells chose the latter approach when he stored 7,500 bitcoins away in 2009, when they were worth a trifling fraction of Bitcoins' current value of more that $1,000 apiece.But he threw the old hard drive away, and now it's likely buried several feet deep in trash in a landfill the size of a football field, according to a BBC report.

He's searching the landfill, but lacks the funds for a serious hunt."The truth is I haven't got the funds or ability to make that happen at the moment without a definite pay cheque at the end of it," he told the BBC.Those who want to give Howells a hand might be interested in an Indiegogo effort to fund a recovery effort.Bitcoins, being just data, can be backed up, but he couldn't find any duplicate copies of his bitcoins, he said.He's not the first to forget about a lot of very valuable bits.But in a happier ending, a Norwegian man named Kristoffer Koch remembered his 2009 stash of $25 worth of bitcoins in time and cashed them out when they had grown in value to about $848,000.Updated at 12:14 a.m.PT November 30 to mention an Indiegogo effort to fund a search for the hard drive.(Via The Verge) Adios, turbulence.Pilots have a new way to outfox youShare This Story!Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutTwitterGoogle+LinkedInPinterestPosted!A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

$7.5M Bitcoin fortune buried in landfillSitting beneath about four feet of garbage in an area of a Welsh landfill the size of a football field sits a fortune — in the form of a computer hard drive that James Howells threw out this summer while cleaning up his workspace.On it: the cryptographic "private key" he needs to access 7,500 Bitcoins.And since the digital currency hit a major milestone yesterday, with a single coin now worth more than $1,000 on the most popular exchange, that tossed hard drive is worth more than $7.5 million.Unfortunately, Howells doesn't have a firm sense of when he sent it to its resting place in the Docksway landfill near Newport, Wales, though he's been racking his brain since Friday, when he realized his error: "between June 20 and Aug.Probably mid-July" is the best he can come up with.NEWSER: Sears owner defies Thanksgiving orderIt was a dumb move then, too: The Guardian estimates the Bitcoins were worth just north of $800,000 at the time.Howells amassed his Bitcoins in February 2009, reports Ars Technica, after just a week of running a program on his laptop; but he knocked lemonade on the laptop a year later and broke it down for parts.