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Man who threw away $750M in Bitcoin wants to buy the dump where it's buried
- ai_ia 2y agoHe should post the ultimate "prove you are a psychic" challenge. People claiming to be "psychic" or such power, can get 100 million$ if they are right at finding the drive.
- nh23423fefe 2y agoWhy not just pray to God?
- jarsin 2y agoEvery time I hear about this guy I picture him finding his lost treasure right as BTC goes back under $1.
- valbaca 2y agohaha just like the Twilight Episode of the guy who finally gets quiet to read...after a nuclear war that also breaks his reading glasses.
- silisili 2y agoI loved and hated that ending. To make matters worse, as a small correction, the war didn't break his glasses. He broke them himself by bending over after sitting to read. Talk about regret.
- gnabgib 2y agoDiscussion (37 points, 1 day ago, 54 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42999044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42999044
- mattbrewsbytes 2y agoI wonder if there is a system to dumps where they can kinda triangulate an area and general depth to a calendar of when things were put there? Talk about a needle in a haystack.
- silisili 2y agoWhat are the odds that a laptop, having spent 12 years in the elements and probably under huge amounts of slimy weight, would even operate or have a functional drive if by some miracle he was able to find it? I honestly don't know, but it just feels like the entire thing would be fried.
- genter 2y agoThere's companies that open them up in a clean room and magnetically image the disk. Not cheap, but I think worth it in this case.
- giantg2 2y agoIt's not always successful though, making this a huge speculative case. That's even assuming it made it to the landfill and someone didn't pick it out first.
- ashoeafoot 2y agobut dumps produce corrosive fluids which would flood the hdd?
- stormfather 2y agoYou would have to put a lot of trust in that company. To be honest, I mean.
- dbspin 2y agoMy heart genuinely goes out to him. Not merely for losing the bitcoin. The idea of trying to negotiate a search (or purchase) of the dump with the risk avoidant jobsworth council bureaucrats of a mid sized British town is spine chilling.
- debeloo 2y agoExactly. Even if he buys it, there's no guarantee he'll permission to dig it up.
- throwaway314155 2y agoHow did he lose the damn keys? It's kinda hard to empathize with that when everyone knows what the consequences are to (i assume) accidentally throwing a fucking single copy of your keys into the trash.
- andelink 2y agoFrom the article: > The whole situation started in the summer of 2013, when Howells accidentally put a laptop that contained his Bitcoin wallet (with 7,500 Bitcoin) in a black bag in the hall of his house. His partner at the time assumed the bag was filled with trash and disposed of it.
- ktallett 2y agoI completely understand their desire to not let it be dug up. Where does that stop? People accidentally throw things out all the time, it's sadly a part of life.
- npoc 2y agoNot many people offer them 10s or 100s of millions of pounds to do it.
- ktallett 2y agoHe doesn't have that amount of money right now. He may never have it. They are taking a massive risk at a great expense to themselves. He may never find the hard drive, it may be unreadable, his memory maybe incorrect and he doesn't have the key on there, and so on. The council would be taking a pointless risk.
- nullsmack 2y agoThis is kinda silly. I bet if this guy ever ends up finding his hard drive, it's probably not going to be readable anymore.
- linsomniac 2y agoI really feel for this guy, because I "lost" 14,000 bitcoins, but in my case I know exactly where they went. And I still think about it them all.the.time. In my case, I wanted to hold onto them "like a lottery ticket", my (now ex) wife had this "sell when the 200 day moving average does X, and then we can buy back when it goes back down under Y" (but never did the buy back).
- ktallett 2y agoWhilst I feel a little for his case and understand he regrets being careless with the key, his life isn't determined by the cash. Is this the best use for your finite time on earth?
- theragra 2y agoHe is the est example of a person consumed by an idea. It is pretty sad. He cannot let it go.
- andelink 2y agoI don’t know how much time he’s spent collectively on this over the last 12 years, but it’s $770M. I think he could spend a moderate amount of time on this and it would be reasonable. Me? I’d have no problem checking in on the situation like once a year. And if I was feeling confident, buying + excavating would be the best ROI decision I’d ever make
- Lockal 2y agoThis figure's previous successes: - seeked investors who would give him real money for a share of mythical bitcoins (if they could be found) - unsuccessfully tried to sue a council £500m in compensation for mythical bitcoins Current challenges: - continues to try to get millions of dollars from "investment partners" for allegedly unearthing mythical bitcoins
- merillecuz56 2y ago[flagged]
- merillecuz56 2y ago[flagged]