'I could have gone around the world or bought a yacht': How throwing out one computer part cost an Australian tech expert $4.8 MILLION
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I could have gone around the world or bought a yacht': How throwing out one computer part cost an Australian tech expert $4.8 MILLION
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
The 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.
'I could have gone around the world or bought a yacht': How throwing out one computer part cost an Australian tech expert $4.8 MILLION
'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.
'I used 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.'
But as he was preparing to move homes, Mr Simpson did the unthinkable.
I think I might be a touch emotionally fragile right now,' the journalist said after discovering his lost profits
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.
Mr Simpson said he could have even bought a house in Sydney if he kept the hard drive
The 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.
'I don't even especially to find those Bitcoin, though. I'm really happy with my life at the moment. I don't need them,' he wrote.
'I'm generally pretty easygoing in life, I think, and I can laugh about it for like 95 per cent of the time, but also, man. Man. What if.'
Despite insisting 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. In Sydney. At Sydney prices. I could have moved around the world or bought a goddamn yacht or something,' he added.
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