{"id":210437,"date":"2017-02-23T05:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/uncategorized\/top-5-shocking-bitcoin-stories-the-merkle.php"},"modified":"2017-02-23T05:00:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T10:00:55","slug":"top-5-shocking-bitcoin-stories-the-merkle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/bitcoin-2\/top-5-shocking-bitcoin-stories-the-merkle.php","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Shocking Bitcoin Stories &#8211; The Merkle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>    Bitcoin has been around for a few years now, enough    time for the cryptocurrency to give us a few unforgettable    stories. These are indeed shocking, as some of those involved    in these eventsfound themselves in a financial roller    coasterthey never thought they would be in. Here are some    of the most amazing bitcoin stories.  <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>    A 28-year-old Brooklyn man used Craigslist to sell bitcoins to    someone near him. He used the website to avoid the hassles of    online bitcoin exchanges but things didnt go as planned. The    stranger he was selling bitcoin to led him to a Honda in which    they were supposed to finalize the deal. Inside the car,    aman    hiding in the backseat pulled a gun on him, and forced the    28-year-old to transfer the bitcoins, at the time worth $1,100,    to the robbers. Then, the thieves grabbed the mans cell phone    and fled.  <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>    Mt. Gox was the worlds largest bitcoin exchange when the    biggest    bitcoin heistin history took place. Allegedly, a    hacker stole roughly 800,000 bitcoins from the exchange, the    equivalent of $400,000 at the time, enough to bring the    exchange to its knees, forcing it to declare bankruptcy.    Today, the same 800,000 bitcoins would be worth over $880    million.  <\/p>\n<p>    Mt. Goxs CEO, Mark Karpeles, had a reaction to the    high-profile heist that seemed, to some, incredibly calm and    vague:  <\/p>\n<p>      We had weaknesses in our system, and our bitcoins vanished.      Weve caused trouble and inconvenience to many people, and I      feel deeply sorry for what has happened.    <\/p>\n<p>    The investigation led by law enforcement panned out due to the    lack of evidence, but Mark Karpeles, was charged with    embezzlement.  <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>    According to what Bitpay CCO Sonny Singhtold    Bloomberg Markets, bitcoins volatility once helped a man    make $1.3 million as he was merely attempting to buy a house.    The man was to pay $4 million for the estate and expressed    interest in paying with bitcoin. Once the transaction started,    one bitcoin was worth $750, but thanks to the cryptocurrencys    volatility, it was worth over $1,000 by the end of the    transaction. That essentially meant the buyer got a little    gift, simply because he decided to pay with bitcoin.  <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>    Back when bitcoins were easier mine, a man named James Howells    mined 7,500 bitcoins and then stored them in a hard drive. In    2009, when he mined them, they werent worth a lot, so James    didnt use them. A few years later, while cleaning up his desk,    he came across the hard drive and,     without remembering the bitcoins in them, he threw it away    , sending it to a landfill. Later on he attempted to retrieve    it, but was unable to.  <\/p>\n<p>    When thrown out, the bitcoins contained in the hard drive were    worth over $600,000. Nowadays, James bitcoins would be worth    over $8 million.  <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>    Erik Finman was introduced to bitcoin in 2012 by his older    brother, who sent him 0.2 bitcoins just for him to get a feel    of the cryptocurrency. Later on, his grandmother gave him a    $1,000 gift for Easter. Then 15-year-old Erik decided to buy    bitcoins with the money and, a year and a half later,    hesold    those bitcoins for $100,000  an incredible return on    investment (ROI). The young entrepreneur decided to use his    money to launch Botangle.com, an online tutoring service.  <\/p>\n<p>    If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our    newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and    technology news  <\/p>\n<p><!-- Auto Generated --><\/p>\n<p>Read this article:<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/themerkle.com\/top-5-shocking-bitcoin-stories\/\" title=\"Top 5 Shocking Bitcoin Stories - The Merkle\">Top 5 Shocking Bitcoin Stories - The Merkle<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Bitcoin has been around for a few years now, enough time for the cryptocurrency to give us a few unforgettable stories.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/bitcoin-2\/top-5-shocking-bitcoin-stories-the-merkle.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[261455],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bitcoin-2"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}