Lost access to your crypto wallet? You share that fate with people of Ancient Egypt!

What is that digital coins have in common with ancient treasures?

Actually I wanted to start a series with the title „Fun facts of archaeology“, but while doing some research about the history of the bitcoin and how it could raise to such a popularity I stumbled upon a really tragic story, that might have been not so funny for the person who was involved. I am talking about this in past tense, but I am not sure if he or she already recovered from it.

---

The dramatic story

Let me describe this story shortly for you, in case you don’t know it yet: The following video was made in 2011 when the Bitcoin started and needed supporters. One of the early adopters of the decentralized cryptocurrency movement produced an animated how-to-video to transfer the idea and its functionality to the people in a very simple way. To realize the production of the clip the owner started a fundraising which ended up in phenomenal 6500 BTC - at that time worth about 65000 $ (below 10 $ per BTC).

---

But… you already know it: he or she lost the key to the bitcoin address. 6500 BTC, today worth around 28 Million US-Dollars, are now sleeping the thousand-year-nap on this address: https://blockchain.info/address/1AYLzYN7SGu5FQLBTADBzqKm4b6Udt6Bw6
A blockchain based drama is now visible to the world at least until the last bitcoin is mined.

---

A bit of science: What has this to do with Ancient Egypt?

---

BLOCK excavation

The following pictures show an example of a finding from in Ancient Egypt. It is dating to the Roman Period (33 – 395 AD). My husband got this big chunk on his working table when nobody knew clearly what it was (left image). They just saw many pieces of metal that stuck in the soil very strong and assumed they have to be coins. We call this a „block excavation“ from a hoard find, which means the Egyptologists didn’t want to remove it from the soil piece by piece to avoid breaking of the fragile parts. So they left this to the practiced hands of a restorer in a laboratory. And on the two right images you can see now the result of some of the coins after restoration work. A huge bunch of coins appeared and surprised all of the team members.

The Value

The value of the coins in historic times can not be esteemated anymore, since there are no records, but their value today is based on at least three factors:

• the material value (for traders)
• the value of limitation (for collectors of antiquities and numismatists)
• the historical value (for Egyptologists and Historians)

The value of limitation is the most enthrilling: of course - the fewer such coins exist the higher their value. But there is one more fact to consider: the international community (i.e. the UNESCO) rates the historical value higher than the material or other values. That’s why there were laws created that prohibite trading of such objects, at least the trading of cultural heritage without any proof of origin.

The intrinsic and the added value

I really feel sorry for that person that have no access to 6500 BTC anymore and I pray for him or her to find peace with that dramatical loss. But is it really a loss? Digital cryptocurrencies are still raising questions about their intrinsic value. As we can see now - value has not only local aspects (Where is it and how can I access/possess it?) but also chronological aspects (When does it come up). So, no matter if you own physical or immaterial coins, both aspects must be considered to realize the value.
To return to the question: yes, of course it is a loss for that person, because we just don’t know what he would have done with it in the future. This is what’s adding value: you can buy illegal stuff with your cryptos or you can build a school in Simbabwe - or just buy some flowers for your mom (what hopefully will be possible soon).

An idea came to my mind…

When I look at the blockchain-address with that high amount of Bitcoin, I feel like a visitor in a museum, looking at precious ancient coins, lying there like a fossil catched in amber, and I ask myself: did he bury his treasure and forgot to mark the place? Or did he die before he could tell his beloved ones where they should dig? It must have been a rich man. Did he earn it legally, maybe by honor through the king, or did he even steal it? Well, we will probably never know.

The Internet, acting as a historical record, told me the a story of that lost digital coins. And I liked that BTC-How-to-video very much. I decided to forward it to my friends who needed some support to understand how it works. Although the video is quite old, it’s still producing value. So, hopefully the owner will upload it once to https://view.ly to immortalize it forever in the blockchain. ;)

And so I am doing the same with my idea of a „digital archaeology“ now with a proof-of-origin and you, my dear readers, as a witness: how about a „Virtual Museum of Lost Digi-Coins“? ;)

---

_{Sources:
Image 1: Source photoshopped with Source
Image 2 – 4: Photographs of my husband Moh., 2012–2013}