Billions lost or stolen as Bitcoin reaches $10,000 and search for missing fortune goes on
BILLIONS of dollars in crypto currency Bitcoin have been lost or stolen, it has been revealed, as the currency reaches record highs.
Bitcoin is now worth around $10,700 (£7,900) a coin but fortunes in the digital currency have been lost and stolen by hackers.
Blockchain Centre founder Martin Davidson said: “It’s very easy to lose crypto.
“If you lose the private key, because of the mathematics involved and the strength of the cryptographic system, which is what makes it so safe, it’s impossible to ever get it back.
Related articles
“What’s commonly happened is people have just deleted the file from their computer — the text document that holds the private key.”
Bitcoin is stored in a digital wallet which has a public address and a private key, if you lose the key it is impossible to access the wallet and get your hands on the valuable currency.
In the early days of the currency coins had very little value and people would often take little care of their keys resulting in wallets that are now worth millions becoming permanently locked.
One early adopter of the currency who chose to be known only as Alex had a wallet containing thousands of coins.
Expert explains theories behind Bitcoin surge
If my wife knows I’m dead
He said: “In the tech community we didn’t think Bitcoin would be that big, if my wife knows I’m dead.”
As the value of his wallet grew Alex decided to back up his key on a USB to try and protect it incase his computer died or he was hacked.
He said: “The thinking was that it’s offline, not on my PC, so in case something bad happened to the PC — if it blew up, or was hacked — I still had a backup.
“I plugged the USB stick back in to try and access the file, but the stick died. It was one of those cheap made-in-China ones.”
As many as 4million coins have been lost, according to research by digital forensics firm Chainalysis.
The vast majority of lost Bitcoin are held by early adopters including the mysterious creator of the currency who is thought to hold 1,000,000 icons.
Treasure hunters have embarked on a search of a Newport landfill in South Wales where a hard drive containing the key for millions of pounds worth of the coins.
With the currency having enjoyed a 1,000 per cent rise this year the value of these lost coins looks set to increase despite continued fears of a bubble.
The crypto currency’s value is extremely volatile recently reaching a record high of $11,000 (£8,170) before crashing down to $9,000 (£6,680) in a matter of hours and then recovering to over $10,700 (£7,900).
As Bitcoin hit its record high the phrase “buy Bitcoin with credit card” topped Google searches in several countries.
While world banking chiefs were forced to calm nervous investing about the possible dent the currency could make in the economy.
The Deputy Governor of the Bank of England claimed Bitcoin was not yet big enough to pose a threat to the global economy.
He said: “I would just say investors kind of need to do their homework”.
