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The third largest bitcoin exchange made a change to their RAM settings in EC2. This shut down the machines, wiping out the hard drive and RAM. Their wallet was

The third largest bitcoin exchange made a change to their RAM settings in EC2. This shut down the machines, wiping out the hard drive and RAM. Their wallet was stored there. They lost everything. https://siliconangle.com/2011/08/01/third-largest-bitcoin-exchange-bitomat-lost-their-wallet-over-17000-bitcoins-missing/ https://siliconangle.com/2011/08/01/third-largest-bitcoin-ex...

lnrd 3y ago
Third largest bitcoin exchange...in 2011.
- Synaesthesia 3y ago
  Well the bitcoin supply is limited, so it's quite a big loss.
  - stavros 3y ago
    For them! Due to the way the economy works, destroying money is actually a donation to everyone else who has money (deflation).
    - mjburgess 3y ago
      Still hard to imagine this wasnt ever just laughed out the room immediately
  - Cpoll 3y ago
    It's infinitely divisible, so not in the same sense as the loss of any other limited item. There could be only one Bitcoin in existence and it wouldn't change the utility of the system.
    - pests 3y ago
      How do you send half a sataoshi?
      - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
        Get all the verifier nodes to agree to increase the divisibility of BTC into sub-satoshi (e.g. via a BIP request approval). This will not be necessary for many generations.
- paulddraper 3y ago
  ...with 17,000 BTC. (Valued at 220k USD then, or 700M USD today)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
lifestyleguru 3y ago
So funny reading comments from that era to the articles about this incident. Some say they were lucky because they are using Mt. Gox! Another observation - bitcoin at that time was by many perceived as and had reputation of in-game purchases.
PhasmaFelis 3y ago
> This event will go down in a long litany of Bitcoin events that have caused massive losses in the BTC economy. Reading this from 2011, and reading the latest on Web3IsGoingGreat.com today, is vaguely staggering. They never have learned.
8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
Ooof... One copy and inside an instance? This person should not have been handling money.

lnrd 3y ago

Third largest bitcoin exchange...in 2011.

Synaesthesia 3y ago
Well the bitcoin supply is limited, so it's quite a big loss.
- stavros 3y ago
  For them! Due to the way the economy works, destroying money is actually a donation to everyone else who has money (deflation).
  - mjburgess 3y ago
    Still hard to imagine this wasnt ever just laughed out the room immediately
- Cpoll 3y ago
  It's infinitely divisible, so not in the same sense as the loss of any other limited item. There could be only one Bitcoin in existence and it wouldn't change the utility of the system.
  - pests 3y ago
    How do you send half a sataoshi?
    - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
      Get all the verifier nodes to agree to increase the divisibility of BTC into sub-satoshi (e.g. via a BIP request approval). This will not be necessary for many generations.
paulddraper 3y ago
...with 17,000 BTC. (Valued at 220k USD then, or 700M USD today)
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

lifestyleguru 3y ago

So funny reading comments from that era to the articles about this incident. Some say they were lucky because they are using Mt. Gox! Another observation - bitcoin at that time was by many perceived as and had reputation of in-game purchases.

PhasmaFelis 3y ago

> This event will go down in a long litany of Bitcoin events that have caused massive losses in the BTC economy. Reading this from 2011, and reading the latest on Web3IsGoingGreat.com today, is vaguely staggering. They never have learned.

8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago

Ooof... One copy and inside an instance? This person should not have been handling money.