This week marks the 10th anniversary of an event that illustrates just how far Bitcoin (BTC) has come in a decade – and some of the potential perils that crypto holders need to remain aware of.
On August 10, 2010, a BitcoinTalk forum user bought BTC 9,000, worth about USD 600 at the time. But that user mistakenly lost control of the lion’s share of that amount – BTC 8,999 – after a failed attempt to back up their crypto.
At today’s prices, those misplaced tokens would be worth over USD 104 million.
The unspent crypto, which was transferred to this address, continues to spark debate in the crypto community, with many cryptocurrency enthusiasts wondering whether the lost bitcoins could ever be retrieved.
In a discussion on Reddit, one user admitted to making a similar mistake in the past, confessing they “did something similar back around 2011-12,” misplacing a wallet with about 40 mined bitcoins on it.
The user wrote,
And now for the most galling part. The poster continued,
“This example may also have played a role in motivating the introduction of the latter into Bitcoin Core. So, we’re in a pretty good spot today where this kind of issue (having a useless backup) is no longer a realistic problem.”
In November 2019, crypto market intelligence firm Coin Metrics estimated that, at the time, almost BTC 183 were provably lost, while assumed lost coins surpassed BTC 1.5m, which is worth now more than USD 17.4bn.
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Learn more:
How to Protect Your Absolute Crypto Lifeline – Seed Words
Seedless Wallets Want to Make Bitcoin More User Friendly
How Good Are Bitcoin Recovery Services?
What Would You Do to Recover Lost Bitcoins?
