A computer expert who has battled for a decade to recover a £600m bitcoin fortune he believes is buried in a council dump in south Wales is considering buying the site so he can hunt for the missing fortune.
James Howells lost a high court case last month to force Newport city council to allow him to search the tip to retrieve a hard drive he says contains the bitcoins.
The council has since announced plans to close and cap the site, which would almost certainly spell the end of any lingering hopes of reaching the bitcoins. The authority has secured planning permission for a solar farm on part of the land.
Howells, 39, said on Monday it had been “quite a surprise” to hear of the closure plan. He said: “It [the council] 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.
“I expected it would be closed in the coming years because it’s 80/90% full – but didn’t expect its closure so soon. If Newport city council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site ‘as is’ and have discussed this option with investment partners and it is something that is very much on the table.”
How come we have to talk about this prat every 4 weeks?
I hope he finds it so I can stop seeing headlines about it
Just imagine how his missus must feel!
This is gonna consume him to his grave.
If he’d taken all the money he’s spent chasing this and just bought more coins he’d probably be a millionaire by now…
there is no chance that hard drive is even intact after a decade in a landfill
so he spends an unhinged amount of money to dig around in rotting garbage to find the remains of a drive that won’t even have his internet funny money on it
I can’t imagine the data would even be readable after all this time. Hard Drives ain’t built to survive being in a tip for a decade, so the odds that water, corrosive liquid and gas got in there is pretty high. That layer that actually holds the data on the platter is incredibly delicate of course, so I wouldn’t hold any hope that the platter could even be removed and read. Must be terrible to have to get up for work every day knowing what slipped through your fingers.
Obsessing over this is gonna ruin the rest of his life.
He should not an entire mining community around digging for the drive, complete with a male voice choir, Mike-Leigh-esque kitchen sink drama and social commentary. In the end the drive will be lost forever but the real treasure will be the vital and invigorating exploration of life in post-Empire, post-Thatcher Britain we made along the way.
He’d make more money from this as a movie idea than he ever would from digging for that fucking drive.
You jest, but that has potential.
Even if he did own the entire site, it would be illegal for him to dig in and disturb the waste due to environmental protection laws.
sunk-cost fallacy
Buried cost fallacy
Imagine thinking that drive is still in one piece after being crushed and left open to the elements.
