The Lemon Fool

just what sort of state will it be in after a decade of damp and other sludge working it's way into it
This is a media headline for a slow news day

pje16 wrote:just what sort of state will it be in after a decade of damp and other sludge working it's way into it
This is a media headline for a slow news day

Indeed it is, but for a reason different from physical degradation of the drive.

Newport council owns the tip and says it won't be granting him no access to do no Bitcoin mining, apparently.

End of story, to use a popular cliché.

Didn't the BBC report this back in 2013?

I'm sure that they did. What's changed? Err.........
Not a lot.

Yes I do recall thinking what a dipwit several years ago
so nothing has changed

Urbandreamer wrote:Didn't the BBC report this back in 2013?

I'm sure that they did. What's changed? Err.........
Not a lot.

The price of Bitcoin, I guess. Despite recent drops.

"Now, with the Bitcoin worth an estimated £150m ($184m), he is planning to spend millions digging up a Newport landfill in a bid to find the lost hard drive.

If recovered Mr Howells said he would give 10% of the proceeds to turn the city into a crypto-currency hub.

But the council said excavating the site would pose an ecological risk.

Mr Howells, an IT engineer, accidentally threw away the hard drive in 2013 after mining 8,000 Bitcoins in the early stages of the currency's development."

Bitcoin: Newport man's plea to find £210m hard drive in tip
14 January 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55658942

Urbandreamer wrote:
Didn't the BBC report this back in 2013?

Rehashing a Bitcoin story?

I'll get my cost.....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

It is a sad story, the obsession has basically ruined his life.

Urbandreamer wrote:Didn't the BBC report this back in 2013?

I'm sure that they did. What's changed? Err.........
Not a lot.

Yes I remember it from way back then.

At the time I think, just from memory, one Bitcoin was worth about £4k. So 'accidentally' throwing out 8,000 of them worth £32m even back then, seems beyond stupid.

My gut feeling is there must be a back story of some sort not being mentioned.

I think it's slow news day story that qualifies for a Darwin award
https://darwinawards.com/

Mike4 wrote:At the time I think, just from memory, one Bitcoin was worth about £4k. So 'accidentally' throwing out 8,000 of them worth £32m even back then, seems beyond stupid.

My gut feeling is there must be a back story of some sort not being mentioned.

Why does there need to be any "back story" to explain it? I simply think the story is the story.

XFool wrote:Why does there need to be any "back story" to explain it? I simply think the story is the story.

may I humbly suggest you have omitted the word "non" twice

...I really don't understand why this BBC News item is proving so 'controversial' ?

Thinks: Is it because it seems to lack any obvious 'Biased BBC' angle?

Interestingly, it was moved to here after first posting on the Current Affairs & News board. Perhaps this is the reason?
I first posted it on Curiosity Corner, before deleting when I spotted the current version.

Well the title is either misleading
or knowing @Snorvey...."tongue in cheek"

XFool wrote:

Mike4 wrote:At the time I think, just from memory, one Bitcoin was worth about £4k. So 'accidentally' throwing out 8,000 of them worth £32m even back then, seems beyond stupid.

My gut feeling is there must be a back story of some sort not being mentioned.

Why does there need to be any "back story" to explain it? I simply think the story is the story.

For the reason explained in my post you quoted.

If I had something worth £32m lying around, I'm totally 100% sure I would not 'accidentally' put it in the bin.

Mike4 wrote:

XFool wrote:Why does there need to be any "back story" to explain it? I simply think the story is the story.

For the reason explained in my post you quoted.

If I had something worth £32m lying around, I'm totally 100% sure I would not 'accidentally' put it in the bin.

Here you go:

The reason not to throw away old hard drives might be surprising — there could be bitcoin on there

https://www.deseret.com/2021/12/10/22827963/james-howells-threw-away-hard-drives-with-bitcoin-password

James Howells from Newport, Wales, threw away a hard drive that contained a ‘private key’ needed to access and spend his 7,500 bitcoins, now worth hundreds of millions

"Howells, a 35-year-old information technology engineer from Newport, Wales, said he had two identical laptop hard drives, but one of them contained a “private key” needed to access and spend his bitcoins, which he accidentally threw away, according to CNBC."

Well I trashed a load of old drives on retirement - easier than wiping them as there were about twenty in all, some all of 40mb. And I was pretty sure I’d copied all the important data along with each upgrade to the larger more modern discs as acquired.
Unfortunately, one had the only copy of one of my gpg private keys.

Does this mean that the pool of available bitcoins will decrease over time as they are lost?

BoE

Bubblesofearth wrote:Does this mean that the pool of available bitcoins will decrease over time as they are lost?

BoE

yes. Edit, somebody, presumably the 'inventor' of bitcoin, mined about a million of them (from memory) in the very early days (when a zx spectrum could mine). They have never been touched. All is logged on the blockchain. They've presumably either lost the keys or think the price is still too low...

NotSure wrote:

Bubblesofearth wrote:Does this mean that the pool of available bitcoins will decrease over time as they are lost?

BoE

yes. Edit, somebody, presumably the 'inventor' of bitcoin, mined about a million of them (from memory) in the very early days (when a zx spectrum could mine). They have never been touched. All is logged on the blockchain. they've presumably either lost the keys or think the price is still too low...

A qualified yes, as new BC are being mined all the time, adding to those in existence.

But there is a hard limit to how many can ever be mined, so the 'yes' is ultimately correct, even though in practise the limit will probably never be reached, due to the ever-escalating amount of work needed to mine each further BC. All AIUI.

NotSure wrote:
yes. Edit, somebody, presumably the 'inventor' of bitcoin, mined about a million of them (from memory) in the very early days (when a zx spectrum could mine). They have never been touched. All is logged on the blockchain. They've presumably either lost the keys or think the price is still too low...

So advocates of Bitcoin becoming the Global currency believe that not only will Governments abandon monetary control but will also accept a currency that will be more strongly deflationary than gold. If so then I can understand why no-one will want to touch their Bitcoin holdings.

BoE