A British man’s long-running battle to retrieve a hard drive holding Bitcoin worth over $750 million (roughly $759 million), lost in a landfill site in Newport, has come to a disappointing end. A UK court ruled against James Howells, dismissing his request to excavate a Newport landfill where he believes the valuable drive has been buried for over a decade.
The saga began in 2013 when Howells, a former IT worker, accidentally discarded the hard drive during an office clean-up. At the time, the Bitcoin it contained was worth only a fraction of its current value. Over the years, as Bitcoin’s price soared, the drive’s worth grew to around $750 million at its peak.
Howells proposed a £10 million ($12.3 million) excavation plan, offering to share 10% of any recovered funds with the local council and community. However, the Newport Council rejected the idea, citing environmental risks and potential damage to the local ecosystem. They argued that digging up the landfill could breach environmental regulations and cause harm to the environment.
Howells then took the matter to court, asking for access to the landfill or $608 million in damages. However, the council countered that the hard drive became their property once it was discarded. The court sided with the council, stating that the environmental impact of the excavation was too great and that the council’s ownership of the landfill made Howells’ case invalid.
Despite the ruling, Howells remains determined to recover his lost fortune. He expressed frustration at the decision but found some comfort in the court not disputing his ownership of the Bitcoin itself. He is now exploring alternative options, including potentially tokenizing Bitcoin into a new cryptocurrency.
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