Nearly 10 years ago, James Howells tossed out a hard drive during a cleanup, forgetting about the Bitcoins inside, when each one was worth around $10. Now, with Bitcoin worth $23.000, he is planning to spend over a million dollars digging up a Newport landfill.
If it recovers, Mr. Howells promised that he would donate 10% of the profits to turn the city into a cryptocurrency hub. But the city council said excavation of the site would pose an ecological risk.
The search for crypto treasure
Howells accidentally dropped the hard drive in 2013 after mining 8.000 Bitcoins in the early stages of the coin's development. Newport council, which owns the landfill where Mr Howells believes the unit is located, has repeatedly denied him access to excavation of the site on environmental and safety grounds. Howells has encouraged access by promising to earmark around 10% of the unit's revenue, should it recover, to fund a number of crypto-based projects.
Any excavation project for the unit requires a massive manual excavation task through thousands of tons of compacted fill that have accumulated on the site over decades. But Mr. Howells believes that he now has the funding and knowledge to do it effectively and in a way that benefits the site's environment.
But finding the hard drive is part of the monumental task. There is no guarantee that, if it is there, it is in a recoverable state. It is well known that hard drives are more stable, but during these ten years, the hard drive with 8.000 Bitcoin has been exposed to harmful agents such as sand, infested water and even acids. This Crypto version of Long John Silver or Goal D. Roger has already relinquished some ownership of the coins as part of the funding process. Aside from promising projects to mine Bitcoin with wind power, his other plans include giving £50 worth of Bitcoin to every Newport resident, and installing crypto-based terminals in all shops.
Newport council said it had repeatedly responded to requests from Mr Howells to access the site. But the answer is that poses a significant ecological risk that they cannot accept and that the terms of their permission prevent them from considering.
