Now, right before a new gray monday, it's good to remind that things could be worse ..or how would you feel if you had accidentially thrown some bitcoins away with your old computer? 7,500 bitcoins to be precise
I remember seen some news about this situation before when the bitcoin's value started to rise but given the current rate I'm starting to feel sorry for the poor lad who now has bitcoins worth over 75,000,000$ lying under hundreds of tons of trash.
Back in 2009, Welsh man set an old laptop to mining bitcoin – back before you needed specialised hardware – eventually totting up 7,500 coins. He later broke up the Dell M1710 into parts to sell on eBay, but kept the hard drive tucked away in a drawer in case bitcoin ever did take off. Four years later, he'd forgotten about his horde, and during a clean out, the hard drive was accidentally binned, presumably landing in Newport landfill.
So, most likely the hard drive is ruined but if there is a chance for the bitcoins to be recovered from the hard drive it might be time for the people living in South Wales to grab their shovels and start digging. Might be much more profitable than digging gold. The only problem is that the city council hasn't given a permission to start digging as this migh cause some problems for the surrounding environment.
The original article can be found from:
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/bitcoin-lost-newport-landfill