Bitcoin “for Dummies”: An Introduction to Cryptocurrency Investing and Its Risks
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Planet Money's bitcoin story Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. From Gimlet, this is Reply All. I do a great job solving them. And, um, I actually have kind of a doozy this week. What have you got? Um, so this Super Tech Support comes to us from one of my favorite writers. First thing is first, can you bitcoin for dummies music tell me who you are?
And you emailed us. Can you tell me why you emailed us? I emailed you guys because I bought bitcoin in what I thought was but I think was January, What did you settle on for what you wanted to buy?
I think I bought weed and Molly. And [clears throat] how were the drugs? I think they were fine. I actually think the weed was not that good, and I think the molly was molly so it was great. Jia says that she bought about 80 bucks worth bitcoin for dummies music bitcoin for this drug purchase, and she knows that there was bitcoin left over. But, in the 6 years since the original purchase, she has totally forgotten what happened to the bitcoin.
Uh, what was the date you gave? I could have so much money! That must be really agonizing. Uh, it was though. This really hurts to look at. But it could easily be six figures of money. Because not only did she buy this bitcoin six years ago, buying bitcoin is stupidly complicated.
So, can you explain to bitcoin for dummies music, to the best of your memory, like exactly the process of buying the bitcoin and then buying the drugs? Uh, there are gonna be big holes here. Wait a minute, you deposited money— JIA: Cash, American, US dollars. Via pneumatic tube— JIA: Yeah, yeah I did. At a normal bank— Bitcoin for dummies music I think that was actually just her putting money in her bank account. Either way, she goes home, gets on the internet, just like, the regular internet, not the dark web, and she goes bitcoin for dummies music this thing called a bitcoin exchange, think of it as a bank [MUSIC] PJ: She purchases bitcoin using that money.
So now her money is at this… online bitcoin exchange a. And bitcoin for dummies music has one of two options: She can let the bitcoin exchange keep track of her bitcoin, or she can keep track of it using a program on her laptop called a bitcoin wallet. Which is what she thinks she did. And then I remember using some sort of internet tutorial to learn PGP. Or to get a PGP key. I had to like encrypt something about my wallet. Yeah, I hate these words, right? Where do they live?
It is totally anonymous, and when you buy bitcoin, all they do is put you on the list. I am going to need that computer. Should I- Should I like- send it off to get the hard drive done? Um, I have a- I have a history of tech support. I will bring you my laptop. Alright here it is. Oh my god it feels so big. It was not water damage. I opened up the computer and it turns out that the battery had exploded inside the computer. But, I managed to get the hard drive out, I connected it to my computer, and I went down into the studio with Producer Damiano Marchetti.
Okay, it is, uh, Tuesday, January 2nd, Welcome to the new year, Damiano. Are you ready for this odyssey of discovery? I had it in backwards. The hard drive is spinning. The hard drive is spinning, which means that… oh. Wait a second — this looks like a wallet address. It has no transactions, it has not received any bitcoin, it has not sent any bitcoin. So do you remember when I said Jia bought her bitcoin from a bitcoin exchange, which is— PJ: Basically, instead of her managing her own bitcoin keys and worrying about potentially losing them and never getting her bitcoin back, she could leave it on this site.
And the good news is Jia remembers where she bought her bitcoin. She bought it at a website called Mt. So, in the early days of bitcoin, Mt. Gox was like the Bank of America of bitcoin for dummies music. And what happened was, one day in earlyMt. And then, a document leaked from Mt. Gox that said over the course of several years hackers had stolen aboutbitcoin from Mt. One of the biggest bitcoin exchanges houses called Mt. Gox has gone offline. It seems to have vanished.
Transactions have been halted, and the CEO is unaccounted for after resigning from the bitcoin foundation. People were freaking out about this.
There was talk that this could be the end of bitcoin for dummies music entirely, because there was half a billion dollars worth of bitcoin that was just gone. Which, today, would be worth bitcoin for dummies music billion dollars. People start filing lawsuits left and right. The only bright point in this dark tale, I mean, at least for us, is that Mt.
Gox puts a portal on their website that lets you check to see if you had bitcoin there when the site shut bitcoin for dummies music. Like if your name was Jia Tolentino. So I call Jia…. I walk her through the site. It will take you to the Mt. Gox bankruptcy filing system. Uh, she tries to login. Like, what password was I using in She has bitcoin for dummies music my level of memory.
The temporary authentication code will be sent to the contact email address that you entered on the bankruptcy claim form. I could have made us rich. I will never give up.
As long bitcoin for dummies music you have hundreds- potentially hundreds of thousands of bitcoin for dummies music locked on the internet somewhere— JIA: Gox to speak to.
Like the right bank teller. Hello, thank you for calling. How can I help you today? Uh, I would like to check on the, um, account balance of an account on Mt. And basically I learn that this operator has a ton of polite ways of saying no. But I could, I could give you the information, and maybe they would get back to me?
