The history of the value of bitcoin has been incredible so far, with the world's foremost cryptocurrency ascending from a niche internet oddity to a financial powerhouse with a market capitalization of almost $127 billion. Bitcoin's transformation from trash to treasure has not only brought financial success to its early adopters, but also produced fascinating stories of regret and squandered opportunities.

In the early days of bitcoin, a popular use of the cryptocurrency was to facilitate transactions between users in online games. The British singer Lily Allen, for example, was offered "hundreds of thousands of bitcoins" to perform live in the virtual world Second Life. The singer declined and later expressed her regret in a 2014 Twitter post. Even though the $900 price tag already seemed incredible at the time of her tweet, bitcoin has risen to an astronomical $7572 at the time of this writing.

Others already ammassed a sizeable amount of bitcoins in the early days of the cryptocurrency, only to lose them in various ways. One such example is a British man called James Howells, who recounted his story in an interview with The Guardian. Howells mined 7500 bitcoins on his personal computer in 2009. When the computer broke due to Howells accidentally spilling liquid on it, he took it apart to try and salvage the parts that were still working. The hard drive was untouched and he left it in a desk drawer, throwing it away 4 years later when cleaning his house. Is it possible that landfills are becoming the treasure troves of the future, containing millions upon millions in digital gold?