91
submitted 5 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Summary

James Howells lost 8,000 Bitcoins worth over £500 million when he accidentally threw away a hard drive containing his private key.

He has been trying to retrieve the hard drive from a Newport landfill for over a decade, but the council has refused to allow him access.

Howells is now suing the council for £495 million in damages.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This is sad, and I can see why they're telling him no.

Because chances of finding it are slim, and chances of finding him if he shovels himself into some kinda garbage-pile-sinkhole void are also probably pretty slim!

I feel this way about 3 binders of mint never-played OG Pokemon cards I collected as a kid. I remember them exactly. Had my name on the cover with stickers and everything. The box just disappeared when I had to move numerous times in a short period.

I often rack my brain and curse the loss, especially because right now I'm your statistical millennial struggling to make money appear. It would've been worth a lot. I kinda hate the idea of trading cards these days because of it lol.

(To be fair, I just hate speculative markets, the hobby that inevitably overtakes every other hobby like a Tyranid swarm)

But at this point, this poor guy seems utterly consumed by his own greed.

In the words of Sean Connery as Dr. Jones Sr. in "The Last Crusade":

"Lehttit goh, Shon."

Money is the root of all evil. Perhaps our mistake is not losing the rest of Bitcoin unrecoverable in a nameless landfill...

I think it also might scream volumes about our society, that someone is driven to obsessive madness over the value of an encased metallic platter full of code nobody can make tangible use of. People must chase after imaginary riches to feel secure.

this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
91 points (81.8% liked)

World News

39110 readers
2354 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS