Forgetting about investments for four years usually isn't the best way to manage money, but for Kristoffer Koch, the strategy (if you can call it that) paid off handsomely: It bought him an apartment. In 2009, the Norwegian man was writing his thesis about encryption and researching the (at the time) little-known Bitcoins.
The encryption on Bitcoins, a digital currency with no centralized authority, makes them essentially untraceable. Curious, Koch bought 5,000 Bitcoins, which cost about $24. Then he forgot about them, finished his thesis and went on with his life.
Bitcoins grew in popularity, and the currency boomed earlier this year. All the media coverage reminded Koch about his purchase, so he checked his account. The coins, which used to be worth less than a penny apiece, now had a total value of $866,000. Koch cashed in a fifth of his earnings to buy a three-bedroom apartment in Oslo. For their part, Bitcoins are still going strong: A new Bitcoin exchange called Coinfloor, committed to anti-money-laundering rules, opened Tuesday.
