A UK court has rejected a decade-long quest by a British man to recover a hard drive containing Bitcoin worth over $750 million, in which he asked to excavate a Newport landfill.
James Howells, an IT worker who became a Bitcoin millionaire on paper, accidentally threw it away during one of his office clean-ups in 2013. It was worth a couple of thousand dollars at the time. Fast-forward to today, and that same drive boasts an eye-watering $760 million in value of digital gold, now buried beneath tons of waste.
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Howells suggested a hazardous, $12.3 million excavation plan; he promised that 10% of the funds recovered would be given to the local council and community. However, due to considerable ecological hazards-the possible digging up of the landfill, ecological damage, and breach of laws on the environment-the Newport Council refused to permit the excavation.
Undeterred and frustrated, Howells took the matter to court, requesting either access to the landfill or $608 million in damages. The council said it was right because the hard drive, upon being thrown away, became its property. The court, emphasizing environmental concerns and the rules of ownership for a landfill, sided with them.
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But even then, that did not deter Howells, and he is considering creative options of tokenizing the lost Bitcoin into some new cryptocurrency. The treasure hunt isn’t over just yet for him.
