In 2013 Wired Magazine published a piece experimenting with Bitcoin mining called “Watch Wired Get Rich Quick With Our Sleek Bitcoin Miner.” Coincidentally, they did get rich – the wallet they tossed has over 13BTC (120k USD) in it. Whether it was “quick” or not is up to you to decide.
“WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries.”
So, missing the biggest tech (and possibly economic) boat of the century its really not that big of a deal right?
Watch Wired Get Rich Quick
They used equipment from Butterfly Labs – a company that was shut down in 2014 and finally made a settlement for misleading customers who don’t know any better (like Wired Magazine) in 2016. But their miner did work for the short time they used it.
They took the nerdy time to set up data feeds for tracking their “Bitcoin empire,” and referred to the computer as a “money box.” They probably had tons of fun making jokes about the whole cryptocurrency industry while writing the article… leaving them with 13.3BTC.
“BTC 2 is worth about $220, and the miner sells for $274. So in just two weeks, those lucky enough to have snagged one of these rigs will have paid off the initial investment.”
“San Francisco’s Pacific Brewing Laboratory said they’d sell us a keg for BTC 1.5”
“But in the end, the answer was obvious. The world’s most popular digital currency really is nothing more than an abstraction. So we’re destroying the private key used by our Bitcoin wallet.”
It’s about how silly media is, and how silly Wired should feel.
The key thing to remember here is (your private key) DYOR (do your own research). Don’t let any media, any personality, anything outweigh your opinion after taking the time to research something you have a feeling has value.