A computer hard drive holding a Bitcoin virtual fortune of £4m has been buried under tons of rubbish after its owner accidentally threw it away.
The hard drive, languishing on a landfill site, has on it a digital wallet containing 7,500 Bitcoins – an online virtual currency.
The Bitcoins were worth almost nothing when they were created – but the cryptocurrency’s value has since soared.
James Howells bought and stored them on his laptop in 2009. However, a year later he spilled lemonade on the computer, which he then dismantled to salvage some of the parts.
He placed the hard drive in a drawer and completely forgot about it until he had a clear-out this summer.
It was with horror he realised last week that the cryptographic ‘private key’ needed to access and spend the Bitcoins was on the lost hard drive.
Mr Howells, who works in IT, told the Guardian: ‘You know when you put something in the bin, and in your head, say to yourself “that’s a bad idea”? I really did have that.
‘I don’t have an exact date, the only time period I can give – and I’ve been racking my own brains – is between 20 June and 10 August. Probably mid-July.’
Mr Howells, who didn’t back up the hard drive, has given up the search but Docksway landfill site, near Newport in Wales, is preparing itself for an army of virtual treasure hunters.
