The private key for a Bitcoin wallet is just a super-secret number—but if you lose it, your coins are gone forever! Experts estimate that around 20% of all existing BTC (worth billions!) is stuck in wallets because people lost their keys or threw away old hard drives.
One of the most famous cases? A British IT worker named James Howells accidentally tossed a hard drive containing 7,500 BTC (worth over $800 million today) in a landfill in 2013. He’s been begging his local government to let him dig for it ever since… with no luck! 🗑️💸
Lesson: Write down your seed phrase—and maybe check the trash before taking it out! 😅
