Imagine throwing away a bag of rubbish, and among the things that end up in the landfill is your key to a huge fortune. This is not the beginning of a fictional story, but the true story of British engineer James Howells, who in 2013 he threw away a hard drive containing the access codes to 7,500 bitcoins.
At the time, they were worth several hundred thousand pounds, but today their price could be equal to about 11.8 billion crowns. This incredible financial loss leaves Howells to battle for ten years for permission to explore the Newport landfill where the disc is believed to be buried.
Ejecting the disk with the access keys
It all started innocently enough. James Howells started mining bitcoins in 2009, when the cryptocurrency was still in its infancy and not many knew what the future would be. After a few months of mining, he abandoned his efforts, selling the mining computer and keeping only the hard drive with the important private keys. These keys allow the owner of the cryptocurrency to access digital assets, and it is this initiative that has been at the heart of his efforts to save the asset.
The year 2013 became terrible, when Howells, as part of a house cleaning accidentally ejected the wrong disc. He thought it was an old, unused disk, and the one containing the bitcoins he kept safely. By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. The disc ended up in a local landfill in Newport and has been under tons of trash ever since.
Howells hired data recovery experts and found investors willing to finance the complex task. The investigation of the entire landfill should cost around 10 million pounds (about 300 million crowns). Howells even offered 10% of the treasure found to the town, which would add tens of millions of pounds to the town’s coffers.
Despite the generous offer, he met strong opposition from Newport City Council. His they rejected the requests citing environmental impactsthat excavation may have on the surrounding environment. According to the city, disturbing the landfill could harm nature and nearby residents. However, Howells argues that his team includes experts in waste management and that the excavation would be done safely.
The court must make a decision
Despite a series of problems, Howells rejects his dream of saving Bitcoin. His team estimates that the chance of recovering data from the drive, if found undamaged, is around 80%. That’s a pretty high hope, especially since the drive has been exposed to the pressure of moisture and debris for over a decade.
As a result of repeated rejection by Howells after years of failed negotiations suing the cityto force him to give permission to inspect the landfill. In the lawsuit, he wants access to the dump or compensation of 495 million pounds, which is the value of the bitcoins that should be on the disk. His argument for compensation is that if the city allowed him to search the dump and dig up the disc, he would have a chance to get his bitcoins back.
According to the latest information available, the court case between James Howells and Newport City Council is still being prepared and the specific date or place of the court hearing has not yet been publicly announced. Howells remains hopeful that the legal journey will bring him closer to being able to dig up the dump and recover his lost bitcoins.
Resources: techspot.com, cryptometer.io, telegraph.co.uk.
2024-10-20 12:45:00
#threw #disc #bitcoins #worth #billion #crowns #suing #city #inspect #landfill
