Looking for lost BTC! Imagine accidentally throwing away a trash can full of gold bars. That’s exactly what James Howells did, except in his case the “bullion” was 8,000 Bitcoins, now valued at nearly $500 million. Ten years after the tragedy, Howells is still in pursuit of his precious treasure, and his fight has just taken a new turn with a legal complaint against Newport City Hall. We take stock.
A dump full of BTC: the story of an unlucky hard drive
The story of James Howells begins in 2013, with what could be described as “ biggest computer blunder of all time“. That day, while spring cleaning, Howells mixed up two hard drives. One contained unnecessary files, the other 8,000 Bitcoins.
You can guess what happens next: the bad hard drive ends up in a trash bag, and presto! head to the Newport municipal landfill. At the time, his Bitcoins were worth around $650,000, but today this mountain of junk is worth over £495 million or around $500 million.
Of course, at the time, Howells had no idea the magnitude of his mistake. It was only a few months later, following the meteoric rise of Bitcoin, that he realized the enormity of his loss.
Since then, he has tried everything to recover this hard drive lost among tons of garbage. But nothing happens, Newport remains inflexible: excavations are prohibited for environmental reasons. The landfill? A huge area, a veritable jungle of rubbish that covers several football fields.
Fundraising to set up a research team, use of a robot dog… Horwell moved heaven and earth to find his hard drive which made the headlines two years ago. But in vain. A situation that already annoyed James two years ago, we wrote then:
“James indicates that he would potentially consider taking the town hall to court for “illegal embargo” of his bitcoins… A slightly crazy posture but probably not much more than the whole of this modern saga which has not ended to build his legend. »
Howells brings out the heavy artillery against Newport
So in 2024, after a decade of failures, James Howells turned finally towards justice. He filed a complaint against Newport City Council, claiming 495 million pounds in damages, the value of his 8,000 Bitcoins.
According to him, the town hall is illegally blocking any attempt at excavation, even though he offers to cover all costs and offer 10% of the value of the Bitcoins found, or around 50 million pounds, to the municipality.
Despite this, Newport continues to say no. THE environmental risksthe tons of asbestos, arsenic and methane hidden in the landfill? Too dangerous, says the council. As for Howells, he’s convinced his chance is right there, beneath a pile of toxic waste and rotting compost.
If the hard drive is found, its experts estimate there is an 80% chance that the data is still intact. But Newport City Hall continues to brush these plans aside like a pile of rubbish.
James Howells is far from discouraged. For him, this quest is not just a simple matter of money: it is a personal mission, a race against oblivion. While waiting for the trial, scheduled for December 2024, Howells remains hopeful of searching this land strewn with rubbish and finding his hard drive, his “treasure”. And who knows, maybe one day, the Newport landfill will finally reveal its secrets… If the town hall gives it the opportunity.
In the meantime, take care of your private keys and crypto wallets: Howells’ nightmare is a lesson for us all. Never let your BTC end up in the trash!
