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RE: 5 Years ago, Wired magazine called Bitcoin an abstraction, destroyed their wallet keys and now can't access $120k worth of Bitcoin
Man... I wonder how much crypto is out there truly "lost" forever. Guess there's no way to know really... who knows, maybe they just said they destroyed the keys
The wallet is untouched and I am pretty sure they will keep their word. They did fail to recognize BTC as something that will be big in the future but they are professional journalists. I trust them to keep their word.
We're all thinking it was a stupid move of them, but can we really say that with certainty? Likely none of us were involved in the scene in 2013, most became involved in the last year. Probably everyone reading this post would have thought bitcoin was never going to go anywhere back in 2013, and that amount of bitcoin was only worth a few dollars back then. Not such a crazy idea to destroy it if that's your train of thought.
It's not crazy in 2013 because you have no future perspective. Now that it's valued at 120k, it's easy to recognize their mistake. It was definitely a mistake at the time. The irony of Wired magazine being the company to make this mistake is hilarious.
But even if he thought it was "an abstraction" at the time, why would he destroy the keys instead of saving it on a thumbdrive or something? That just makes no sense.
You can add 28BTC of mine to that $120k for a start....
Every few months or so i become really motivated to turn the house upside down in search of the seed... Every few months im disappointed...
I paid £3 per coin too :(
Well, that's definitely a story to add to the collection. I have a neighbor that is 50+ years old. In 2010 we were talking about BTC at his local caffe and he wanted to know more as well. After explaining it all he gave a friend of mine, who was mining at the time about $20 worth of local currency to sell him 10 BTC.
Needless to say, the keys to that wallet are lost and this guy has no clue where they might be.
I feel like 10% of all crypto will be lost forever because of this.
awwww feel your pain
IIRC approximately 33% is lost.
There are some sources that say 30% or more is lost, like buried treasure, and there are now lots of people trying to figure out how to possibly link early bitcoin blocks with their owners https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/07/07/lost-bitcoin-is-giving-birth-to-an-emerging-crypto-recovery-industry/