While most people regret throwing away old photos or family heirlooms, James Howells lives with the gut-wrenching knowledge that his discarded hard drive contains $768 million worth of Bitcoin buried somewhere in a Welsh landfill.
The IT worker from Newport, Wales, mined 8,000 Bitcoin back in 2009 when the cryptocurrency was worth practically nothing. Then, in 2013, he accidentally tossed the hard drive containing the private keys into the trash. Talk about a costly cleanup day. With 900 new bitcoins being mined daily, his lost fortune keeps growing in significance.
One man’s trash became a $768 million regret when he accidentally threw away his Bitcoin-filled hard drive during spring cleaning.
For over a decade, Howells has been desperately trying to search the Docks Way landfill site. The Newport city council, however, keeps saying no. They’ve blocked every attempt, claiming they actually own the hard drive now – because apparently, anything in their dump belongs to them. How convenient. Finding the device is like searching through 1.4 million metric tons of garbage at the site.
Howells hasn’t given up easily. He’s offered to share his Bitcoin fortune with the council, brought in AI experts with fancy detection technology, and even proposed buying the entire landfill site “as is.” His previous recovery plan would cost $13 million and take 36 months. The council’s response? A hard pass, citing environmental concerns. Experts warn that heavy machinery could crush the drive during any excavation attempt.
In January 2024, Howells took his fight to the high court. The judge wasn’t impressed, ruling he had “no realistic prospect” of winning at a full trial. To make matters worse, the landfill is scheduled to close in 2025-26, with plans to turn part of it into a solar farm. Talk about adding insult to injury.
This Welsh tale of woe isn’t unique in the crypto world. Around 3 million Bitcoin – about 13% of the total supply – are considered permanently lost.
Howells’s story has become a cautionary tale about cryptocurrency storage and a bizarre example of how digital fortunes can literally end up in the trash.
As the landfill’s closure date approaches, those Bitcoin might stay buried forever, joining countless coffee cups, banana peels, and who knows what else in their final resting place beneath Welsh soil.
