He had over $760 Million dollars in Bitcoin on a hard drive📉
He had over 760 Million dollars in Bitcoin on a hard drive.
Then, he accidentally threw it away.
Desperate to find it he offered his city $75 million to let him search for it.
Here is the wild story of the biggest treasure hunt of the 21st century:
Meet James Howells, an IT engineer in Wales, confidently threw an old hard drive during a cleanup in 2013.
What he didn’t realize: it held 8,000 Bitcoins.
At today’s prices, that’s over $760 million—buried in a landfill.
But that’s just the beginning..
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The hard drive is lost under 110,000 tons of trash in Newport’s municipal landfill.
Howells approached the Newport City Council to dig it up.
They said no.
Environmental risks.
High costs.
Too much liability.
But Howells wasn’t giving up.
His solution?
A recovery plan straight out of a sci-fi movie.
• Robot dogs to scan for signs of the hard drive.
• AI-powered sorting machines to sift through mountains of trash.
• A replica landfill to train the AI before the real hunt begins.
The estimated cost of this operation?
$11 million.
But Howells isn’t paying out of pocket.
He’s partnered with hedge funds, offering them a cut of the treasure.
Still, the council says no.
Howells offered Newport a staggering 25% of the Bitcoin if they let him search.
That’s $190+ million at todays price.
Part of his plan?
He wants to build a Bitcoin hub in the city.
The council’s response? Still no.
But Howell claims this isn’t just about recovering the money…
He’s brought in environmental scientists to guarantee the search is safe.
He’s also proposed turning landfill methane—harmful greenhouse gas—into energy.
It could transform Newport’s trash into a renewable energy source.
And the stakes?
Astronomical.
NASA engineers believe they can recover the data, even if the hard drive is damaged.
But first, it has to be found..
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For over a decade, Howells has pursued this buried dream.
He has spent more than 10 years chasing his buried treasure under 110,000 tons of trash.
The takeaway:
This isn’t just a story about Bitcoin.
It’s about persistence, innovation, and how far someone will go to fix a billion-dollar mistake.
What would you do if your fortune was buried in a landfill?
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