As Bitcoin continues its walk to become “conventional” and in current use, it turns out that its increasing price rates are not the only thing that suffers a sudden increase. There is new research to note that popular cryptography now consumes more electricity than more than 20 countries in Europe.
What is Bitcoin?
We can refer in generic terms that it is a virtual currency created in 2009, based on the peer-to-peer (P2P) system. P2P is a system that does not provide for centralized authority to control currency or transactions, as with other currencies (for example, the INR. is controlled by the RBI). Instead, money creation and transfers are based on an open-source network in encrypted protocols that form the basis of Bitcoin’s security and freedom, making transactions instantaneous among users. The invention of a mysterious computer guru, who referred to his pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, this coin is created by means of a very complex mathematical formula. Bitcoin is the currency of fashion. Those who had the vision to buy or mine when it was nothing have now small fortunes – or large ones. Or you may also have bad luck and your fortune is on a hard drive that ended up in the garbage by mistake. James Howells, a computer scientist in Newport, Wales, who saw the potential for the cryptocurrency and put a server to mine, confronts this vital horror. However, in 2009 he had to turn it off because his girlfriend was bothered by the noise of the fan. So he dismantled it and saved the hard drive with 7,500 bitcoins – the so-called cold storage – which at that time were worth only a few hundred dollars. But then a classic incident happened: in a move in 2013 the drawer in which he had kept the record ended up in the trash. At that time it was already a major problem since at that time each bitcoin was already worth $120, so he had just lost about $10,77,74,962.50. As he explains, he forgot the hard drive because he was focused on “the family and the change of house”. Later, he managed to contact the landfill where the hard drive is located, which is the size of a football field. The problem is that the hard disk could be at a depth of one meter, so the cost of locating it would be very high. Since then the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed to record peaks. Today that record is a hidden treasure of $100 Million. Howells is seriously considering the possibility of starting a serious search of the hard drive. However, it is not an easy task. “Modern landfills are complex engineering projects, and digging in one can bring environmental problems such as the emission of gases or fires,” he explains. “It’s expensive and risky,” among other things because nothing guarantees or find the disk or that it is in perfect conditions, with which the key to be able to use that fortune could have been lost forever. So, what do you think about this incident? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
