The Bitcoin Curse

In 2011, David was a young programmer chasing dreams of innovation. He stumbled upon Bitcoin, a strange, experimental currency, and decided to buy 5,000 BTC for $500. “It’s just a gamble,” he thought, tucking the coins away on an old laptop. Life moved on, and so did David—marriage, fatherhood, bills. The laptop gathered dust in the attic, and the investment faded into a distant memory.

A dozen years later, his son Alex, now 13, stumbled upon the forgotten machine while searching for a gaming console. He powered it up, navigating its clunky interface until a file caught his eye: “BTC Wallet.” Alex, always a tech whiz, managed to guess the password after a few tries. What he saw made his heart race—5,000 BTC, now worth over $150 million.

Alex couldn’t contain his excitement. Without telling his dad, he transferred the balance to a modern crypto wallet app on his phone, thrilled by the numbers on the screen. That night, at dinner, he casually blurted out, “Dad, what would you do with $150 million?”

David laughed, but Alex slid his phone across the table. The laughter stopped. David’s eyes widened as he read the wallet balance. “Where… where did you get this?” he stammered.

“I found it on your old laptop. I moved it to my wallet!” Alex beamed, proud of himself.

David’s joy turned into panic. “What app did you use?”

Alex hesitated, then showed him. David’s heart sank. The app wasn’t legitimate—it was a cleverly disguised scam. As they watched in horror, the wallet balance drained to zero, sent to an unknown address.

David sat silently, staring at the empty screen, a lifetime of what-ifs racing through his mind. Alex, pale with guilt, whispered, “I just wanted to help.”

David placed a hand on his son’s shoulder, his voice calm but heavy. “You didn’t lose this. I did. I forgot its value long before you found it.”