A 41-year-old man worth billions of dollars in Bitcoin is said to have drowned in the waters of Costa Rica and now one wonders if his fortune will ever be accessible.
Mircea Popescu drowned at Playa Hermosa de Garabito in Puntarenas on Wednesday morning, according to a local news site. He reportedly went swimming in the water around 8:30 a. m. and it was carried away by the current.
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Popescu had between $1 billion and $2 billion in Bitcoin. It’s unclear who, if any, has their virtual assets. Some in the industry speculate that fortune may disappear forever.
Bitcoin homeowners historically use personal virtual keys to access their Bitcoin wallets. Bitcoins are not physical cash but are virtual in nature. If you lose your virtual key (basically a password), there is no way to access your Bitcoins.
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Decentralized virtual currency can be mined, an expensive and complicated process, or someone can buy them through a cryptocurrency exchange.
In June, El Salvador was the first country to settle for Bitcoin as a legal tender.
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