WIRED It successfully mined 13 Bitcoins , which are now worth about $100,000, but in an effort to stay ethical in publishing news, it destroyed the wallet keys. Years later, Louise Matsakis, a writer for WIRED, said that the magazine could lock up the Bitcoins for future use.
The device sent to Wired for a product review was clocked at 5 gigahash per second, and those interested in purchasing the device at the time would have to pay $274.
While the device was working as described above, it collected about 13 coins, which left the company with an ethical dilemma. When former WIRED Robert McMillian reported the profits, he raised the question of what to do with the proceeds. After a lengthy discussion, staff members couldn’t agree on what to do with the profits, with Matsakis saying “what was agreed upon was that the money shouldn’t ‘just sit there,’ because it could affect how the magazine reports on cryptocurrencies.”
To resolve the issue, WIRED decided to destroy the private keys that unlock their Bitcoin wallet so that the funds could never be used.”
Recovering a lost or stolen private key is impossible, according to Cryptalker. The destruction of the private keys from the 13 Bitcoin wallet is a big loss, but compared to the estimated 3.79 million lost coins worldwide, this amount is considered insignificant.
