I once owned 1,000 Bitcoin.
Today, 777 of them are gone.
At Bitcoin's all-time high of $126,198, those 777 Bitcoin would have been worth approximately $98 million USD.
I didn't sell them too early.
I didn't lose them trading.
I didn't get hacked.
I threw them away.
The Most Expensive Laptop I Ever Owned
I bought my first Bitcoin in 2011 for approximately $1.07.
This was the very early days of Bitcoin. Long before Ledger hardware wallets and today's sophisticated custody solutions, I kept my Bitcoin wallet on a laptop.
In 2012, I used some of those Bitcoin on SatoshiDice. Then I stopped using it.
And honestly, I forgot about the rest.
At the end of January 2013, I was moving my office from 67 Mowat Avenue in Toronto to Wellington Street. We had new Macs coming in and were clearing out old equipment.
One of my designers had been using my old laptop.
I told him to throw it in the recycling room.
I had completely forgotten that the laptop contained access to 777 Bitcoin.
Bitcoin closed January 31 at approximately $20. Those coins were worth around $15,750.
And I wasn't paying attention.
Then Bitcoin Exploded
By late 2013 and early 2014, Bitcoin was suddenly making headlines everywhere after climbing to around $1,000.
That's when my stomach dropped.
Oh no. What did I do with my Bitcoin?
Then I remembered the laptop.
I spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to recover it. I had people searching for it, including searches at waste and recycling facilities around Toronto.
I tried everything I realistically could.
It was gone.
What was worth roughly $15,750 when I threw that laptop away would eventually reach a peak value of approximately:
$98,055,900 USD.
I Bought Bitcoin Again
I could have let that experience make me bitter about Bitcoin.
Instead, I was fortunate enough to start buying Bitcoin again in 2016.
That same year, we made my company Ask The Doctor an early adopter of Bitcoin payments in healthcare—a move that was covered by HuffPost.
Read the 2016 HuffPost article (November 4th, 2016 - Bitcoin Price $700.40 USD)
I had accidentally thrown away 777 Bitcoin, spent tens of thousands trying to recover them, failed—and still came back to Bitcoin at a much higher price.
The $98 Million Lesson
Obviously, I'd love to have those 777 Bitcoin today.
But I don't spend my life thinking about what could have been.
The experience taught me something I've never forgotten:
Never protect Bitcoin based on what it's worth today. Protect it based on what it could be worth decades from now.
I learned that lesson with 777 Bitcoin.
It was a $98 million lesson I'll never forget.
