IT pro says he threw out 7,500 bitcoins, now worth $7.5 million

[Wilikon]

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/it-pro-says-he-threw-out-7500-bitcoins-now-worth-7-5-million/


Many people have a tale of a lost or broken hard drive containing some bit of precious data they wish they could recover. But perhaps no one on the planet has thrown out a hard drive as valuable as the one James Howells says is now buried in a landfill.

According to an article in The Guardian today, Howells threw out the hard drive, "rescued from a defunct Dell laptop," this past summer. "And then last Friday he realised that it held a digital wallet with 7,500 Bitcoins created for almost nothing in 2009," the story notes.

Howells, an IT pro, says his mistake likely occurred in mid-July, at which time a single bitcoin was worth about $90. Today, the value of a single bitcoin passed $1,000 for the first time, making 7,500 bitcoins worth $7.5 million.

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[BitcoinBarrel]

Well that sucks 

[JTrain_51]

I really feel bad for this guy but I have had some stuff happen to me I bought a laptop with 6.3 bitcoins and that was like 1k at the time now thats 6.3k for this thousand dollar laptop lol

But ya 7.5mill feel bad for the guy

[Minecache]

He's not an IT 'pro' if he:

1. failed to take a hdd backup;
2. failed to check what was on a hdd before binning it;
3. failed to physically destroy the hdd before binning it.

Not a 'pro' in any means of the word.

[Pente]

He's not an IT 'pro' if he:

1. failed to take a hdd backup;
2. failed to check what was on a hdd before binning it;
3. failed to physically destroy the hdd before binning it.

Not a 'pro' in any means of the word.

And total lack of awareness of his situation.

If he was an "IT Pro", one of the worse ever.

I have absolutely no sympathy for him.

Besides, I find the story incredulous.

[bennybong]

He's not an IT 'pro' if he:

1. failed to take a hdd backup;
2. failed to check what was on a hdd before binning it;
3. failed to physically destroy the hdd before binning it.

Not a 'pro' in any means of the word.

And total lack of awareness of his situation.

If he was an "IT Pro", one of the worse ever.

I have absolutely no sympathy for him.

Besides, I find the story incredulous.

I've read a follow-up article that states he is actually searching the local rubbish dump for it. Good luck!

[XBBlade]

Yeah I agree with the above. No pro at all, come on if one should know about backups it had to be him..

[TheFootMan]

Wonder if that landfill now sees an increase of people searching for this harddrive. And I wonder if the story is true at all - we just have his words.

I also lost a hdd of 2000 BTC, it got shipped off Kenya, and now some blacksmith is using it to make necklaces to the local women. True story. 

[jubalix]

at some point some speculator may see the 7500 BTC as worth more than the rubbish tip and acquire the whole thing, then make a systematic search

[Kenshin]

He's not an IT 'pro' if he:

1. failed to take a hdd backup;
2. failed to check what was on a hdd before binning it;
3. failed to physically destroy the hdd before binning it.

Not a 'pro' in any means of the word.

I totally agreed. How can he be a professional? Even my Grandma is better than him. 

[illpoet]

doh!

[ooxtcoo]

many professionals are very lazy!

you work to mutch on other computers and dont have time for your own things.

you think, ahh.. next day i do make my backup... but next day no time for it, you again think ok.. tomorow i make my backup... one day you hdd crash and you think you are a lazy idiot.

that happend to me when i lost source code of 2 month work.
i had to rewrite all the last updates of my programms for the last 2 month...

i just shutdown my laptop, all working like normal, next morning hdd.. click... click!  fu..!

[TheFootMan]

i just shutdown my laptop, all working like normal, next morning hdd.. click... click!  fu..!

Well, do you do backups now ?

[toroidmonster24]

He's not an IT 'pro' if he:

1. failed to take a hdd backup;
2. failed to check what was on a hdd before binning it;
3. failed to physically destroy the hdd before binning it.

Not a 'pro' in any means of the word.

Just because you're a pro doesn't mean you follow standard data protection procedures on your home computers. I'm a computer guru, and honestly only *some* things are backed up on my computer. If my hard drives die, I lose a lot of things--many of which are replaceable, and in 2011 after the mtgox hack, I guarantee you I wouldn't have cared too much if $200 worth of BTC could've gotten lost. Yeah I'd shrug it off, get a little irritated, and that's it.

Sometimes you just forget things. There's a reason why in a professional work environment, if you work in IT, there's SOPs and checklists you follow before throwing equipment out with possibly important data. With personal stuff, you sometimes just do a quick check in your brain and then bam. I'm a prolific ROM flasher on Android and I love continuity. While I've managed to flash my phones probably 100+ times, I've managed to keep all my texts from 2007 and on. I've managed to keep my Whatsapp conversations intact since 2010 except the one time just one month ago when I accidentally wiped my /sdcard folder. Am I now a newb? It's easy to mess things up, but if I were doing this for work, I'd be extra careful. We all know that you *should* do a Nandroid before you flash, or you should have multiple layers of redundancy, and have offsite backup, blah blah blah, but hindsight is always 20/20.

[mrdavis]

Sure, I have a number of things here and there that are not backed up that I would be unhappy to lose, but BTC7,500 when a "single bitcoin was worth $90"? It clearly didn't have that value to him.

[Ryartran]

Sure, I have a number of things here and there that are not backed up that I would be unhappy to lose, but BTC7,500 when a "single bitcoin was worth $90"? It clearly didn't have that value to him.

Still, even if he had sold those bitcoins to Mt. Gox at the time, he'd have made 675,000 USD. A pretty good payout if you ask me. -_- Bitcoin is like the stock market in almost every aspect, buy low, mine low, sell high.

[GigaCoin]

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/it-pro-says-he-threw-out-7500-bitcoins-now-worth-7-5-million/


Many people have a tale of a lost or broken hard drive containing some bit of precious data they wish they could recover. But perhaps no one on the planet has thrown out a hard drive as valuable as the one James Howells says is now buried in a landfill.

According to an article in The Guardian today, Howells threw out the hard drive, "rescued from a defunct Dell laptop," this past summer. "And then last Friday he realised that it held a digital wallet with 7,500 Bitcoins created for almost nothing in 2009," the story notes.

Howells, an IT pro, says his mistake likely occurred in mid-July, at which time a single bitcoin was worth about $90. Today, the value of a single bitcoin passed $1,000 for the first time, making 7,500 bitcoins worth $7.5 million.

shit happens, some people are not meant to be rich it's just the way of life seen it too many times.

[silvergoldandbitcoin]

Oh god.... That was just painful to read.......

But on the brighter side, we all have bitcoin that's worth that much more!

I still feel terrible for him though...

[bryant.coleman]

Here is a wallet with 8,000 BTCs (all created from mining?) which is not active ever since 2009?

https://blockchain.info/address/198aMn6ZYAczwrE5NvNTUMyJ5qkfy4g3Hi

Is this his wallet? 

[MaW]

so disgusting, and I thought my situation was sick.. I sold 65btc a couple months back for 8k.. could have got 65k.. sigh