An American magazine that focuses on emerging technologies that affect culture, the economy and politics found itself in hot water recently as its tech employees recall the time they burned $120k worth of Bitcoin some five-odd years ago.

One would think that such an esteemed magazine would recognise innovation when they saw it. But looks like they missed the mark this time.

In 2013 Wired released an article about a Bitcoin miner from Butterfly Labs. They set up a live stream of the mining operation with this “small box that burns less energy than a light bulb” and didn’t know what to do with they money they were about to make. Somehow, after very little deliberation no doubt, they managed to come to the conclusion to destroy the wallet access keys and leave it there because Bitcoin is an abstraction and nothing more.

It reads: “But in the end, the answer was obvious. The world’s most popular digital currency really is nothing more than an abstraction. So we’re destroying the private key used by our Bitcoin wallet. That leaves our growing pile of Bitcoin lucre locked away in a digital vault for all eternity — or at least until someone cracks the SHA-256 encryption that secures it.”

Who would have thought that this abstraction will someday be worth $120k in this case? Well, not Wired tech journalists for sure.

If anything at all, this cautionary tale serves as a lesson for prospective investors: Always conduct proper research before throwing your money at a project.