Bitcoin\u2019s early days were full of opportunities. Back then, people could mine 50 BTC on a regular laptop and build huge fortunes.<\/p>\n
One of those people was Michael Mancil Brown, known online as KnightMB. At one point, he was one of the richest Bitcoin owners. But his story took a crazy turn\u200a\u2014\u200ahe got caught in a blackmail scandal involving a U.S. politician, and his Bitcoin fortune disappeared.<\/p>\n
Buying Bitcoin for Almost\u00a0Nothing<\/p>\n
Brown got into Bitcoin in 2010, when 1 BTC was worth less than a penny. He was active in online forums and even chatted with Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of\u00a0Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
At the time, Bitcoin wasn\u2019t worth much, and most people didn\u2019t take it seriously. But Brown saw its potential.<\/p>\n
He claimed he worked for a company that mined a huge amount of Bitcoin using company servers. Later, when his bosses lost interest, he convinced them to sell him everything for just\u00a0$5,000.<\/p>\n
That deal included 371,000 BTC\u200a\u2014\u200ameaning he paid just $0.01 per\u00a0Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
At first, it wasn\u2019t worth much. But within a few years, his Bitcoin was worth over $1\u00a0million.<\/p>\n
A Normal Life\u200a\u2014\u200aor So It\u00a0Seemed<\/p>\n
To most people, Brown lived a quiet life. His family thought he was just an IT specialist. He even made the local news for building a special\u00a0bicycle.<\/p>\n
But there were strange details. He once claimed to know who Satoshi Nakamoto was. He also hinted that his Bitcoin fortune came from secret banking projects.<\/p>\n
The Blackmail Scandal<\/p>\n
In 2012, Brown\u2019s life took a shocking turn. The U.S. government accused him of blackmailing Mitt Romney, a politician who was running for U.S. president.<\/p>\n
Authorities believed Brown stole Romney\u2019s tax records and demanded a $1 million ransom in Bitcoin to keep them\u00a0secret.<\/p>\n
At first, Brown denied everything. But then, the FBI raided his home and took his computers. That\u2019s when they found something shocking.<\/p>\n
Inside the package mailed to Romney\u2019s office, there was a hard drive\u200a\u2014\u200aand on that hard drive was a photo of Brown\u2019s own cat. Even worse, that same photo was caught on his home security\u00a0camera.<\/p>\n
That simple mistake ruined everything.<\/p>\n
Prison and a Lost\u00a0Fortune<\/p>\n
In 2016, Brown was found guilty of extortion. He was sent to prison for four years and had to pay a $200,000\u00a0fine.<\/p>\n
After he got out, he tried to appeal his case, saying that his friends were the real criminals. But the court didn\u2019t believe\u00a0him.<\/p>\n
By then, his Bitcoin fortune had grown to billions. But what happened to\u00a0it?<\/p>\n
Brown says he lost everything because of legal fees. Some people think he forgot his Bitcoin passwords. Others believe he hid his fortune somewhere.<\/p>\n
If he still had access, his 371,000 BTC would be worth over $36 billion\u00a0today.<\/p>\n
But for now, no one knows what happened to his\u00a0Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
The Man Who Lost $36 Billion in Bitcoin<\/a> was originally published in Coinmonks<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bitcoin\u2019s early days were full of opportunities. Back then, people could mine 50 BTC on a regular laptop and build huge fortunes. One of those people was Michael Mancil Brown, known online as KnightMB. At one point, he was one of the richest Bitcoin owners. But his story took a crazy turn\u200a\u2014\u200ahe got caught in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":136588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/136588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}