A man who forgot he had $866 thousand in his mobile bitcoin account, now has a home according to the International Business Times in the United Kingdom..
Kristoffer Koch purchased 5,000 bitcoins or digital currency in 2009 after unearthing the new form of money while working on a thesis project about encryption as he was interested in the money because people can use it to pay for stuff without be tracked.
Koch was triggered to check his digital wallet after several reports surfaced about the currencies increases, and decreases. He then subsequently discovered the money after checking his account, and immediately purchased a three-bedroom apartment in Oslo Norway.
Each bitcoin was worth no more than a penny when Koch made his initial investment. This changed when it became popular, and was publicized therefore increasing its price to a maximum $266 per coin, just prior to falling to $110 a few hours after. The currency was valued at $20 the year before.
The new form of money has not become a standardized form of payment.
"We believe users and traders deserve a trustworthy [Bitcoin] exchange on which to conduct their business," Mark Lamb, bitcoin and chief executive officer told Wired Magazine. "From the start, we've been committed to building and operating Coinfloor as a fully-compliant and professional financial services company and we look forward to helping to establish Bitcoin as a mass market asset. However, we pride ourselves on our compliance even in the absence of regulatory guidance, and look forward to a point in the future when the HMRC and FCA may choose to regulate Bitcoin as a currency as we would be ready and confident about our immediate compliance," explains Coinfloor. We believe that the creation of a formal regulatory regime for Bitcoin businesses (whether under the current payment services regime or under a new regime for decentralised currencies) would benefit the UK economy and in particular the fintech sector."
