Bit Coins - Oh Dear Me!

[Tiskets]

The resigned look on this gentleman's face says it all. What a shame.
http://www.itv.com/news/wales/update...bitcoins-loss/

[suesjools]

Oh wow, hate it when that happens. Guess being a packrat isn't such a bad thing after all...

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[Tallshrew]

Strong odour of fish to me.

[buttons-and-bows]

Why would anyone go and throw a hard disk away without smashing it to bit's first

[burgyeb]

Heard it is the biggest ponzi scheme since Berni.........can not say for sure though as I never looked into its bits.

[Tiskets]

This is the easiest explanation I found:

A Bitcoin is often referred to as a new kind of currency. But it may be best to think of its units being virtual tokens rather than physical coins or notes.However, like all currencies its value is determined by how much people are willing to exchange it for.

To process Bitcoin transactions, a procedure called "mining" must take place, which involves a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution. For each problem solved, one block of bitcoins is processed. In addition the miner is rewarded with new bitcoins. This provides an incentive for people to provide computer processing power to solve the problems.

To compensate for the growing power of computer chips, the difficulty of the puzzles is adjusted to ensure a steady stream of about 3,600 new bitcoins a day.

There are currently about 11 million bitcoins in existence. To receive a bitcoin a user must have a Bitcoin address - a string of 27-34 letters and numbers - which acts as a kind of virtual postbox to and from which the bitcoins are sent.
Since there is no registry of these addresses, people can use them to protect their anonymity when making a transaction.

These addresses are in turn stored in Bitcoin wallets which are used to manage savings.

They operate like privately run bank accounts - with the proviso that if the data is lost, so are the bitcoins owned.

Which is what happened to the gentleman in my OP.

[Tropical_Trish]

He was on Radio 2 - the Jeremy Vine show - apparently he stored the hard drive for three years before he ditched it.
Then he forgot what the hard drive contained ... quite a few of the callers in to radio 2 said they had no sympathy for him ....

[kreativebargains]

In a way he lost nothing. He mined the coins for free when this was a simpler thing to do than nowadays.

As for Bitcoins themselves they are gaining some credibility, but as they are so volatile they seem more like a speculators plaything than a real currency. If we were to list in Bitcoins we would have to alter our prices daily as they can easily move in value by 10% or more.