Man who accidentally threw away £600 million in Bitcoin finally admits it’s ‘game over’

https://www.mylondon.news/news/real-life/man-who-accidentally-threw-away-30784656

by alyaaz

40 comments

  1. Poor bloke. We’ve all cocked up but never with that many zeros after it.

  2. I hope he can move on without spending every hour of everyday thinking about the what ifs… it’s going to be very difficult..

  3. No doubt he’ll write a book, then sell the film rights, then start a podcast about biggest regrets in life.

    But don’t worry, he’s totally over it.

  4. Poor guy… I lost out on £30mils worth because I told my nana I was gonna buy 400bitcoins in 2010 and she told me don’t be daft that’s the money to do you the next two weeks go get yourself some food..

    Cheers nana, great advice.

  5. > James said one omission from the judge had been ‘extra painful’ as he refused to acknowledge him as the owner of the coins –

    Christ he still doesn’t understand his own case. This was never the issue before the court. 

    The hard drive allegedly contains his private key to unlock the wallet. 

    The Bitcoins all exist on the block chain. They do not exist on the hard drive. Therefore, the ownership of the bitcoin is not in question.

    The only question was whether the hard drive belonged to him or the council. S.14 Control of Pollution Act says that anything deposited in a licenced waste disposal site by a user of that site automatically belongs to thr licencee  – in this case the council. 

    It’s absurdly simple. It was a waste of time. He threw it in the bin (or his partner did) – its no one else’s problem but his. 

    The lesson for us all is don’t throw your passwords in the bin – if necessary print them out and stick the bit of paper at the back of your filing cabinet.

  6. >“Maybe Donald Trump could help make something happen. I would certainly cut Trump in on the deal if he could help. I am appealing to him and anyone else who can help sort this madness.”

    >James expressed his frustration with the council’s refusal to engage, believing they missed the chance to transform Newport into the ‘Dubai or Las Vegas’ of the UK.

    Perfectly on brand for a crypto bro.

  7. I know this isn’t really the point but he didn’t throw away £600 million, when he disposed of the drive in 2013 his 8,000BTC would have been worth around £1 million, still shit but not as news worthy I guess.

  8. Most of us who got into bitcoin fairly early spent it or sold it early on anyway. The chances are extremely high this guy would have done the same thing.

    I’ve still got one wallet which I used to buy drugs with. What was a tiny amount left, useless for anything is worth nearly £1000 now.

  9. I do feel sorry for him. He will either find a path to enlightenment or get buried by it, I hope it’s the former.

  10. In 1983，I violently shit my britches in front of a girl I liked. I cringe when I think about that.

    This guy here lost 600m quid.

  11. A genuine case of “I’ll never financially recover from this”.

  12. I’d love to know how many bin men have looked for that who work at the tip ! I know I would !

  13. And all it took was losing his wife, kids, job, 15 years of life, …

  14. Coming to terms with it is a watershed moment of personal growth for him. I will miss the annual resurgence of this story in the newspapers though.

  15. If he had them, he would have sold them for much less albeit at a decent profit

  16. people keep being mean about him but i really do feel for him. to say this would be gutting is an understatement, it would be enough to make some people go insane.

  17. “The council said digging up the landfill would have serious environmental consequences” are you telling me digging a big hole and filling it with rubbish in the first place didn’t have serious environmental consequences

  18. Thank fuck for that. Hopefully we won’t hear from him every 6 months now.

  20. About time. Should have gave up years ago when he first threw it away.

  21. The CIA took my bitcoins when silkroad got closed down where’s my article

  22. My wife threw away my collection of 115 2000 AD comics from issue one all the way up.
    I feel his pain.

  23. Best part about this story over the years is every time the figure is completely different. First he was digging up for £4m, then £210m, now £600m!

  24. Don’t throw out old HDDs – turn them into rotating LED clocks or something! Keep the magnets for fridge magnets! And if destroyed it should go to eWaste not general landfill!

  25. The guy was offering the council like 10% or something if they helped find it, should have offered them 99%

  26. They need to just discuss what 8000 coins was worth on the day he threw it away. Which is not 600 million.

  27. Imagine in 100,000 years when they dig the drive up and realise that crypto is still worthless crap. 

  28. I’m still sad about being given extra chicken at Chicken Cottage after a night out only for the bag to break while I ran for the bus.

  29. Someone who works at the tip definitely recovered it. 100%

  30. Does this mean he’ll cease to appear in the news every time Bitcoin hits a new high?

  32. I’m picturing this as a brassic episode.

    “Millions you say..? Vincent, get ya shovel out”

  33. Would love a compo face with him pointing at the landfill site

  34. If he’d bought throughout the years he’s been moaning (and there has been a lot), he would be a millionaire by now.

  35. Do we know how or why he chucked it in the first place?

  36. The real decentralised currency were the friends we made on the way.

  37. Finally. I was getting real sick of Mr “I made a massive mistake and want to make it everyone else’s problem”.

  38. He never had it. When he lost it, the hard drive was worth just under £100K. He had 9000 bitcoins and must have spent at least a few grand on them over the years as well as the ones he mined.

    Who doesn’t look after £100K?

    My conspiracy theory is that he made it up yet has been given considerable sums in exchange for a percentage of the fictional loot and has been living off the proceeds.

  39. I once dropped a whole pizza when walking home from the pub, landed cheese side down in a puddle. That was 10 years ago, still sad about it today.

  40. There are untold amounts of people who lost the keys to bitcoin they bought early on as a gimmick, and people who spent it on buying online crap when it was insignificant in value.
    Additionally there are all the others who thought about chucking in fifty quid early days and could have made a fortune but didn’t.

    Why is this guy special, why do we have to hear about how he is ‘haunted by what could have been’ we all have some moment we wish we could have changed for one reason or another, why do we have to keep hearing about this bloke banging on about his over and over again?

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