It all started with the mysterious bitcoin, which no one believed. Almost nothing is known about the figure of Satoshi Nakamoto, its creator. The first crypto enthusiasts acted at random, not even suspecting (but secretly hoping) that in a few years, their assets would grow in value thousands of times. Remember everyone’s beloved story about the first purchase of bitcoins? A programmer from the USA spent 10,000BTC for two pizzas.
Our new Blockchain-Pop section presents a selection of funny cases and fun facts in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Let’s begin, shall we?
In 2013, British programmer James Howells threw his old hard drive into a trash can, used to store 7500BTC. Well, thought Howells, bitcoin has no value anyway. What was his surprise when, in a few years, his savings began to be estimated at almost 400 million dollars! The whole life of a British programmer turned into an exciting quest to return the lost hard drive. Initially, he offered 30% of his fee to local authorities to help him dig up the landfill. But the city administration refused, referring to the fact that the search could worsen the ecological situation in the area. Indeed, tens of tons of garbage would have to be stirred up. Years later, Howells finds the support of European financiers and plans to build a whole complex with conveyors and mechanical arms equipped with special scanners specially trained to find hard drives in the thick of garbage. The programmer does not despair and promises that the search will not harm the environment, and part of his bitcoin income, which is stored on the desired HDD, will be spent on constructing an environmentally friendly power plant. Let’s hope that the information on the hard drive has not been erased for so many years!
