Four years ago, Oslo-man Christopher Koch's girlfriend scoffed at his purchase of $27-worth of Bitcoin. Chances are she was singing a decidedly different tune last April, when Koch checked back in on his investment and found out it was worth $886,000. And over a cool million today.
Back in 2009, Koch was working on a thesis paper about encryption, which introduced him to the relatively unknown world of Bitcoin. On little more than a whim, he decided to throw down $27 for 5,000 Bitcoins because the encryption process fascinated him and because why not. Koch then promptly forgot about the purchase—until Bitcoin started popping up in the news four years later, that is.
Remembering his offhand investment, Koch frantically searched for the password to his wallet and was floored to find that, by last April's standards, he was sitting on an $886,000 nest egg. After trading in just one-fifth of his total purchase, he was able to buy himself an apartment in Toyen, one of the wealthiest areas in Oslo.
Of course, Bitcoin is also notorious for occasionally erratic fluctuations in value, the most recent example being the seizure of Silk Road earlier in the month, which saw the price fall to $30 before skyrocketing again to $197. By today's standards, though, Koch's $27 investment of 5,000 Bitcoins is worth a total of $1,010,000. Not bad for a broke student with zero investment experience. [NRK via The Guardian]