5 days ago
Man ends 12-year hunt for €800m bitcoin in landfill
A Welsh computer engineer who has spent 12 years trying to find his now €800m bitcoin fortune has given up on his mission.
James Howell previously said his ex-partner accidentally took the hard drive containing his Bitcoin wallet to a dump in the summer of 2013.
The Welsh man fought tirelessly to gain access to the dump in order to retrieve the hard drive with his fortune. James Howell. Pic: Lee Howell/SWNS
Newport Council told Mr Howell that the property had became theirs once it entered the landfill site.
At the start of the year, a legal case was launched by Mr Howell, though Circuit Commerical Judge for Wales Judge Keysey dismissed it on lack of 'reasonable grounds.'
Mr Howell even offered to share his monies with the dump, but to no avail. Newport Council told Mr Howell that the property had became theirs once it entered the landfill site. Pic: Tom Wren/SWNS
The landfill is reported to have more than 1.4 million tonnes of rubbish, though Mr Howell had narrowed the location of his hard drive to an area of 100,000 tonnes.
Following reports that Howell had quit his mission, he told The Block that following an offer to purchase Newport landfill site, he had 'pivoted' his strategy.
A token offer of between €28m and €34m was made to the City Council, with Howell stating: 'If they won't sell, there's no need for a token sale to buy the landfill.
'I am no longer pursuing the purchase of the landfill, I am no longer pursuing excavation or remediation, I am no longer pursuing dialogue with the council or its representatives.'
Instead, Howell is moving to tokenize his legal ownership of the lost BItcoin fortune, which may be possible following the launch of a new Bitcoin Layer 2 smart token called Ceiniog Coin (INI).
The Welsh man noted that while the hard drive may belong to the Council now, the digital contents do not.
