A man is raising the stakes in his years-long battle to get back a hard drive that contains a discarded bitcoin key worth somewhere around $800 million by offering to purchase a landfill in Great Britain in an effort to find the wallet before it closes down.
James Howells has begged and pleaded with the Newport City Council, in South Wales, to gain access to the mountains of waste to find the hard drive that was accidentally thrown away in 2013, the New York Times reported.
“Seems like a better plan for me and the city,” Howells told the newspaper, noting that he envisions clearing out the trash and converting the site to a park, or possibly making it a dump site again. “The landfill gets cleaned. I get to dig for my hard drive.”
He previously offered to fully fund the excavation process and share 25% of the recovered Bitcoin with the Newport City Council. At the time, a judge stated that Howells had “no reasonable grounds” for bringing the claim and that there was “no realistic prospect” of success if the case were to proceed to a full trial.
Now the city is planning to close the landfill for good.
Howells, a computer science analyst, accidentally discarded the hard drive with a pile of trash. He was cleaning out his office in 2013 when he left it with other items destined for the dump. A miscommunication with his partner at the time led to the drive being gathered up and taken to the landfill, the Times reported.
To his misfortune, the hard drive, a backup from an old gaming computer, contained the only copy of his 51-character private key, used to access Bitcoin wallets. In the late 2000s, when cryptocurrency was in its infancy, Howell had mined it as a hobbyist.
However, he realized his mistake months later, as well as the fact that the Bitcoin wallet was worth millions. He’s been trying to get it back ever since.
Despite his attempts, the Newport City Council has suggested that the chances of Howells recovering the 12-year-old wallet are slim.
“This needle is very, very, very valuable — $800 million,” Howells said “which means I’m willing to search every piece of hay in order to find the needle.”
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