This may be due to my strong peasant pedigree, but it is always a good plan to have a little cash stashed away for emergencies. Stashing a few bills here and there around the house, in the sock drawer, in the back of the freezer, in old food cans, etc., is quite normal for those who are prepared for a rainy day. Keeping a stash of emergency food and other essentials in case of emergency is all I have ever been able to stash away in my household.

As reported by BBC News (opens in new tab), US$3.36 billion worth of stolen bitcoins were seized by police from a Georgia man's home last year. The funds were found in devices stored throughout his home, including a safe hidden under the floor and a good old popcorn tin. According to U.S. authorities, the net worth was the second largest seizure in history. It's Noah's Ark level for a rainy day.

The home belonged to James Chan, who pleaded guilty to stealing money by taking advantage of a flaw in the payment system of the now-defunct Darknet website Silk Road. These are, generally speaking, websites that deal in illegal substances such as drugs and offer other services that require specific know-how to access.

Such sites were often early adopters of cryptocurrency payments thanks to the promise of further anonymity, so it is not surprising to see names like Silk Road. Scam sites are probably the biggest problem these days, especially when it comes to crypto crime (opens in new tab). (opens in new tab)

Zhong committed the crime in September 2012, setting up multiple accounts on the website and depositing small amounts of bitcoin. He then used the exploit to quickly withdraw large amounts of bitcoins from the website. These were then apparently stored in odd locations on devices and drives around his home, along with over US$600,000 in cash.

The more than 50,000 bitcoins that were stolen seemed to just disappear into the ether for years; they may only be worth about $1.1 billion now, compared to $3.36, but they were still a huge chunk of crypto that had not existed for nearly a decade, a bit of a mystery.

Authorities have not revealed exactly how they discovered the funds, but cryptocurrency tracking technology was allegedly used to track the funds. While it may have taken a decade to get to the bottom of this, the recovery of these funds may serve as a wake-up call to other cryptocriminals. In particular, Zhong could face up to 20 years in prison for his crimes.