The unlucky man who accidentally threw away bitcoin worth $100 million

^{Welsh IT worker James Howells accidentally threw away bitcoin worth more than $100 million CREDIT: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK}

Buried deep below thousands of tonnes of rubbish on a Welsh landfill site, a hard drive with bitcoins potentially worth more than $100 million (£74m) remains tormentingly just out of reach for James Howells.

The Welsh IT technician, one of the very first bitcoin miners, could today have an eight-figure sum sitting in the bank, but instead he can only watch on helplessly as bitcoin’s spectacular price surge continues.

He began mining the decentralised digital currency - a complex process which involves solving complex algorithms to create new bitcoin - on his trusty Dell laptop after it was released as open-source software in February 2009.

The 32-year-old mined 7,500 bitcoins which he saved in a wallet file on his computer hard drive, only for the device worth millions to eventually end up as landfill after he mistakenly threw it away.

Post By : Mark Molloy
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