Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: Bitcoin, Technology, Money, UK News, BBC
Emily Brown
A computer engineer who lost more than $771 million worth of Bitcoin when his ex-girlfriend accidentally threw out his hard drive has shared plans to try and buy the landfill site where he believes it's ended up.
Next time your partner gets mad at you for throwing away the last of their leftover takeout, maybe tell them this story to really put things in perspective.
James Howells' unfortunate ordeal began in 2013, when his former partner accidentally threw out the hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin, which James had started to amass during the late noughties.
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After James realized how much the Bitcoin was worth, he tried to get the council in Wales' permission to search the local landfill site, which holds more than 1.4m tonnes of waste.
The council refused, but the Brit was determined not to give up on the hugely valuable hard-drive and tried to sue the city council to get access to the site.
Alternatively, James asked that he be granted $615,859,200 in compensation.
Unfortunately the engineer's hopes were dashed once again when his case was dismissed by a judge, who argued there was 'no realistic prospect' of the case succeeding at trial. The judge also ruled that too much time had passed after the hard drive was thrown out, and before James brought forward his claim.
To make matters worse, the council shared plans to close the landfill site in the 2025-26 financial year to make way for a solar farm.
This update sparked backlash from James, according to the BBC, as he argued: "The council planning on closing the landfill so soon is quite a surprise, especially since it claimed at the High Court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway."
James believes he's narrowed down the location of his hard drive to an area of 100,000 tonnes of trash, but the huge amount of waste he'd have to sift through to try and find the hard drive doesn't scare him. In fact, he's willing to purchase all of it to further his mission.
He explained: "I would be potentially interested in purchasing the landfill site."
The engineer revealed he's discussed the possibility of purchasing the site with investment partners, insisting it's 'very much on the table'.
In an attempt to tackle the situation from all sides, James also plans to appeal against the judge's decision to throw out his case.
With $771 million at stake, I can't say I blame him.