This is my first post ever because I felt it was necessary to share my frustration and so that no one else makes this heart dropping mistake.
So today I logged into my Genesis Mining account which I haven't logged onto for almost a year. I checked around the website and then I saw the payouts section. (Traveling back in time to July 4, 2016 according to transaction history) I invested a tiny bit of bitcoin into Genesis Mining Ethereum mining hashpower, 3 MH total. I hadn't thought much about it but since it was the 4th of July, I thought: why not? After all, everything started from nothing... At the time Ethereum was around $12 US Dollars or $15 Canadian Dollars so I really didn't care that much. (Fast forward to around 6 hours ago, looking at Genesis Mining payouts) I see the Ethereum payouts, 3.913 ETH... HOLY $H!T!!!!!! That's $1130 USD or $1500 CAD. I then looked at the address that the payout was going to. And then it dawned on me, I built a new computer 3 months ago and I formatted all my drives for a fresh new start. I hadn't even given a second thought to my Ethereum wallet private key or backup/recovery key. I was utterly devastated, I am currently an almost broke student and those $1500 would have saved me a lot of trouble. For the past 6 hours, with a heart full of regret, I have been searching through all my files, all my emails (don't put your backups online), all my notebooks, and all the paper that could have ever been in my house. No luck... I've given up by now so here you can check the transaction history and current balance of the Ethereum address that I can't access: 0x44a7b20156473d25cb96525748644eaf51cace66
TL;DR Bought mining power, lost the payout address private key and recovery key, now I'm devastated that on my screen I see $1500 but I have no way to use it. Don't lose your wallet info no matter how invaluable a coin is when you first start.
Please donate to my Bitcoin, or Ethereum address or upvote and share this post to spread awareness and help a poor student out.
BTC: 14RUACWdnMrNgCk3dMgjZ7mpt7vpBagTrF
ETH: 0x331893726148f16F6C99E29Bb8ceeAc9065bDb83