Did the math on my 30 lost BTC. Now I need a hug and a time machine.

[Cyborg T-33]

So I did something stupid tonight. I calculated what my 30 lost faucet BTC would be worth today.

30 × $70,000 = $2,100,000.

Two. Million. Dollars.

From clicking a captcha and typing an address into a website run by a guy named Gavin.

And then? I formatted the hard drive like a complete legend. No backup. No wallet.dat. Not even a sticky note on the monitor. Just... click... poof... goodbye, future millions.

At the time, 30 BTC bought you maybe a coffee and a sad sandwich. So technically, I didn't lose anything back then. I just pre-ordered a lifetime supply of regret.

The funniest/saddest part? Even if I hadn't formatted that drive, I 100% would have sold at $100 and thrown a party for being a genius. "Look at me, I turned free internet money into $3,000!" Yeah. Party of one. Regret for life.

So really, I didn't lose $2.1 million. I lost the chance to sell too early for way less money. That's almost comforting. Almost.

Anyway, this is your friendly reminder: back up your wallets. Or don't. And then 15 years later you too can do math that makes you want to lie down on the floor for a while.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I'll be here refreshing the Bitcoin price and crying into my coffee.

[Ambatman]

It would have been more disheartening if you had done the car Calculation when we were above $120K

this is your friendly reminder: back up your wallets

Almost similar
I recently had issue with my electrum app on mobile and I realised if I had not properly kept my seedphrase
Then bye bye to my funds.


Nice story by the way.

[Stalker22]

Everyone has regrets.  Pretty much all of us have some story that could have made us rich now, if we played differently.  But honestly, even if you had it, you wouldnt have just let it sit untouched through all the wild ups and downs.  So really, you didnt lose $2 million.

Still, I get that sick feeling in your gut.  When the numbers hit you, its tough not to obsess over those “what ifs.”  But look, at least you were there from the beginning.  That counts for a lot.  Most people cant say the same.

[KingsDen]

Almost every early adopter have their own version of stories. Bitcoin is the most wonder of the world I have witnessed.
It is also beautiful that you realised that you didn't lose $2M because there was no how you were not going to sell at $100. Even if you escape the $100, you will not escape around $300 and you would have regretted when the market crashed heavily after attaining the $300 levels. Now, let's assume you have so much faith in bitcoin and didn't sell, there was no how you were not going to sell at $1k.

And I think, the regret would have been more. It is fine you didn't even hold at all. Now, you didn't also have an exposed private key, quantum hunters will also not believe from your 30 BTC. So sad

[rbynxx]

That adds to the number of lost bitcoin in the circulation. Bitcoin holders will probably thank you for that because it really makes the other supply so valuable jk. Well, mistakes do happen and sometimes it's costly and that's an example of what you've been through. This is probably a long time, no? Regrets is definitely what I'll be getting as well but what if you just forgot about it but you did the unthinkable and saved that PK, it would be an absolute legend save.

Anyways, thanks for sharing, you're probably an OG and great to have you back in here for some refreshments. Take it with a grain of salt.

[boyptc]

So really, I didn't lose $2.1 million. I lost the chance to sell too early for way less money. That's almost comforting. Almost.

That's a consolation.

Many have sold too early and now they're even more regretful than you and can't move on for what they did in the past. At least you're able to comfort yourself by thinking like this.

And, you've contributed more than them to everyone because you've donated a lot in value now. So thanks!

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone.

[rat03gopoh]

Anyway, this is your friendly reminder: back up your wallets. Or don't. And then 15 years later you too can do math that makes you want to lie down on the floor for a while.

For now, For now, it is impossible for people not to do that because bitcoin is too valuable. After all, if you can recognize something that will be so valuable in the future, why not find "something" else and then build a backup?

Pricing your losses at the current valuation feels unrealistic. I once sold more than 0.5 BTC at @12k, and I have no regrets; they're all just memories.

[bitbollo]

This is the latest calculation that every man should ever do in their life.
ALL, Literally, users that have exchanged bitcoin or are here from the early time have spent a lot of bitcoin or have just missing TONS of it.
It is not bad or good but is just part of the life!

Just to mention: bitcoin must be used as real cash and not something "precious" like the ring of "the lord of the ring"
Joke aside, this is cash. No more nor less. This should also be the main reason to use bitcoin, a way to bypass traditional finance (in a nerd way!)

OP doesn't know that maybe he was already selling at 100USD...
Or maybe using these bitcoin was starting to gambling and lose all! I would not look too much at these chances...

[jcojci]

If you still had the drive, you can re-build the formatted drive using some software as I heard this can helps you gets the old data that you formatted before. But you are not alone in this case as others also have the same experienced. Mostly that happens to early adopters who don't believe what Bitcoin will be in the future. We must back up our wallets and others related so we can access it using other devices and not regret it.

[promise444c5]

Anyway, this is your friendly reminder: back up your wallets. Or don't. And then 15 years later you too can do math that makes you want to lie down on the floor for a while.

Such experience will make you lose interest in this world entirely for some minutes.. lol

Sorry for your loss. it’s always hard to think what those life changing money could have done for you but I hope you’re not really too focused on the past? We do mistakes  as humans and they could cost us a lot attimes but it’s alway better we don’t regard it that much..

Hence, creating a backup for your wallet is good but creating multiple backups for your wallet is better

[Yaunfitda]

Anyway, this is your friendly reminder: back up your wallets. Or don't. And then 15 years later you too can do math that makes you want to lie down on the floor for a while.

Such experience will make you lose interest in this world entirely for some minutes.. lol

Sorry for your loss. it’s always hard to think what those life changing money could have done for you but I hope you’re not really too focused on the past? We do mistakes  as humans and they could cost us a lot attimes but it’s alway better we don’t regard it that much..

Hence, creating a backup for your wallet is good but creating multiple backups for your wallet is better

Yes, some of us who have been here before and had some Bitcoin, not as big as the OP though might be trembling to see how big Bitcoin goes in the last 10 years or so. But when we check, we don't have the seed phrase or the mnemonic or the private key because we didn't back it up ouch!!. But we have to move forward and not dwindle on the past and just let it go and charge everything to experience. At least we learn a very expensive lesson that in life, we don't take anything for granted as we don't know what the future holds.

[Marvelockg]

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I'll be here refreshing the Bitcoin price and crying into my coffee.

Unfortunately, no amount of tears that you pour out will bring back a single bitcoin and reflecting in the current equivalent of what you've lost will only hurt you even the more. It's just like putting your shoe in the place of the dude that sold his bitcoin for some amount of pizza, if the dude is alive and still following up what has become of bitcoin, do you know how bad he might be feeling now? But regardless what he feels, there's absolutely nothing he can do about it.

Just face the reality that no time machine is taking you back to the past and that the only solution at this point is to leverage on the current reality and nothing more.

[KiaKia]

Someone also posted a similar story here days ago, and the exact amount was also 30, I guess the topic was deleted by moderator maybe to avoid spamming, are you the same person?

Well I've never had up to 30 Bitcoin in the past but I have lost alot too, this similar thing has happened to many people on this forum, everyone has a hurtful bitcoin past to share, trust me.

This is no more the past, it's your decision if you want to be stucked in the past or move on, it's likely that you will never have 30 Bitcoin again but opportunities isn't completely erased from this space.

The most dangerous thing to you right now is getting stucked in the past, moving forward will become extremely hard, learn from the mistakes you made and hope for a better future.

[Rikafip]

Many of us who are in crypto long enough probably have a similar story, where they either lost bitcoin via losing access to their wallet, or simply spending large amount of bitcoin on some trivial stuff.

 The amount you lost is indeed extreme (from current value point of view) but no point doing that to yourself and keep calculating how much could it be worth now.

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

It's all part of the sacrifices for the growth of the network. If everyone had today's mindset of hodling back a couple decades then there's a very high chance bitcoin wouldn't have even achieved half it's current feat. Adoption is the biggest form of growth for any ecosystem and bitcoin peaked it plus it was one of a kind.

If every dormant and assumed lost coin were for example assumed to be retrieved, it would not be of positive impact to bitcoin too it will only put in more FOMO and price drop than we have already.

[Wiwo]

Just the beginning of you calculations, wait until bitcoin reaches $200k price then redo the maths and get back to this thread again, my friend what is lost can not be recovered and at such you should just move on, free things always get lost some how so I am not surprised with this outcome of formating your entire system containing the 30BTC you recieved in faucet.

Truth is that, you can never make such free money from cryptocurrency again unless you put down alot of capital to gain the profits as time goes on but not as free as it was back then.

[Hazink]

This type of maths will only be putting you in a very tight state. You just have to let go and stop pressing your calculator over something which is already gone. Just use the analogy of if the coin was there you could have already sold it out long before now and console yourself with that, put all those in the past and try to figure out possible ways you can use to accumulate since no free claiming anywhere again instead of allowing yourself to be in this regretful state.

[taufik123]

Remembering how in the past you got Bitcoin very easily and even if it was only 30 BTC it was still very little if you know more people could get thousands of BTC from Faucets easily at that time.

But at that time you didn't feel satisfied, but you didn't back up your wallet properly and you just lost access,
but then you remembered whether you could open your wallet again or not and what is certain is that without any backup your efforts were just in vain.

That can only be used as a story and a bad initial experience in Bitcoin, I also had a little Bitcoin in the past and sold it below $1000 and at that time it was a high price, until in the end Bitcoin reached ATH $125k.
But let's just say this is our Bitcoin journey up to now, it's just a good lesson to appreciate each asset and its importance for long-term assets.

[EluguHcman]

That is very bitter and truthful story of you OP and I will say... Sorry for the lost and take heart if it does still weights you down but I must tell you that you should try as much as you can to move ON over it and  stop recalling what value the Bitcoin would had worth now since after the lost else, you will feel very discouraged.

Stop having that calculative mindset of what the 30 BTC would had worth today with Bitcoin price valued $70K today while it could only afford you coffee then because I doubt if you could had still hold up to date without eventually some before these days.

Lessons also learnt about backing your wallets private keys just in case of necessity.