Latest news with #Howells'
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Did a simple cleanup cost this man $742 million? The shocking 12-year hunt for lost Bitcoin
A Routine Cleanup With Life-Altering Consequences James Howells' Story Becomes the Plot For Docuseries Decade-Long Quest Live Events The Courtroom Drama FAQs (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel In 2013, James Howells was just an ordinary IT worker in Newport, South Wales, doing what most of us do, tidying up his office space. What he didn't realise at the time was that his routine clean-up would accidentally toss away a hard drive holding 8,000 Bitcoins, as per a report. Back then, those Bitcoins were worth $8 million, and today, that same digital wallet is valued at around $742 million, as per Daily Galaxy single mistake turned Howells' life into a treasure hunt for more than a decade, and now after 12 years, his story is being turned into a docuseries and is set to be released in late 2025, as per the report.A Los Angeles-based production company called LEBUL has bought the rights to tell Howells' story in a new docuseries, podcast, and short-form content named 'The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells," reported had mined the Bitcoins in the early days of cryptocurrency, but like many at the time, he didn't fully grasp the value of what he had. The private key to the fortune was stored on a hard drive that ended up in a Newport landfill—lost under tonnes of trash, according to Daily Galaxy Bitcoin's value skyrocketed, so did Howells' determination to recover what he'd lost, but it was not easy to dig up the landfill to find his hard drive, according to the Howells didn't just sit back and mourn his loss, he made plans for high-tech solutions, including AI-powered drones and robotic systems, to safely search the landfill without causing environmental damage, reported Daily Galaxy. He had even offered to fund the project himself and asked just for the Newport City Council's permission to access the landfill, but the permission never came, according to the officials denied permission due to the potential dangers of disturbing the landfill, which could cause the release of toxic gases and the contamination of water sources, reported Daily 2024, his fight had reached its final chapter in court as a British judge ruled his recovery efforts had 'no realistic prospect' of success, as per the report. The judge also had highlighted many factors that made the case untenable, like the condition of the hard drive after more than a decade of exposure to moisture, pressure, and extreme temperatures, as per Daily Galaxy. After the ruling, his search came to an official was tossed into a landfill in Newport, South Wales, where it remains buried under tons of waste.A docuseries titled 'The Buried Bitcoin' is in production by LEBUL, along with a podcast and short-form content.
Wales Online
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Fresh new and unexpected twist on story of man who lost £566m in Bitcoin in rubbish dump
Fresh new and unexpected twist on story of man who lost £566m in Bitcoin in rubbish dump Would-be Bitcoin multi-millionaire James Howells, who has tried in vain for years to get access to the dump to find his lost treasure, has dubbed it 'a story the world is waiting to see' James Howells at the Newport landfill site (Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE ) An American production company has bought the rights to make a TV series about a Welsh dad who lost a fortune at a rubbish dump. James Howells, from Newport, became one of the first miners of Bitcoin in 2009 after learning about the cryptocurrency from internet forums. The 39-year-old created 8,000 coins, which cost him almost nothing, and stored the access code on a 2.5-inch hard drive in a drawer at his home office. But in 2013 his then-partner mistakenly threw out the hard drive. Since then, the value of the coins has rocketed to more than £566m and Howells has spent 12 years desperately trying to get the hard drive back from the Docksway landfill site where it is buried. He recently took Newport council to the High Court in a "last resort" attempt to force an excavation but the claim was thrown out and an appeal failed. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here Los Angeles-based entertainment company Lebul has now acquired rights to develop Mr Howells' story into a "live-action tech thriller" TV series titled The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells. According to its website Lebul's head of scripted entertainment, Aaron Criswell, played "a key role" in films including The Wolf of Wall Street, Red Riding Hood and The Ides of March. Article continues below The series is set to chronicle Mr Howells' mission to recover the hard drive while facing "numerous practical and bureaucratic obstacles". "This isn't just content," said Lebul's Reese Van Allen. "It's a live-action tech thriller with nearly a billion dollars on the line, and Lebul is proud to bring it to the world." Mr Howells said he was proud to confirm the deal with Lebul and described the project as "a story the world is waiting to see". Earlier this year his court claim was thrown out by Judge Keyser KC, who said it would have "no realistic prospect" of success at trial. Newport Council refused to allow an excavation on the basis of its environmental permit. It claimed the dig would have "a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area". You can read more about Mr Howells' disastrous loss and his court battle here. Article continues below Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice.
BBC News
19-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Universities should use reserves to save jobs
The minister responsible for higher education in Wales has asked universities to "consider all options", including using its financial reserves, to prevent job Howells, the Welsh government's minister in charge, announced on Tuesday a further £19m for the higher education sector, despite stating earlier this month that no extra money was comes after the University of South Wales confirmed it would be launching a consultation reviewing its academic provision later this week and Cardiff University's plans to cut 400 critics have argued the extra funding, which is capital cash for buildings, would not solve Wales' higher education financial challenges. In an interview with BBC-produced Newyddion S4C, Ms Howells said she wanted all universities - including Cardiff - to consider using their reserves as others have successfully used them in the past. However Cardiff University has previously said financial reserves "are not the same as money that can be freely spent". Ms Howells added she had already spoken to Cardiff University Vice-Chancellor Wendy Larner several times and was due to speak with her again on Thursday."I've made it really clear to each Vice-Chancellor when I've met them individually and collectively that we in Welsh government want to see job losses as a last resort."Not all of them [reserves] are easily accessible but I do think it's something each university should be considering and other universities have done that in the past to minimise job losses." Ms Howells' comments come after she announced a further £19m for the higher education sector, with £18.5m for estate maintenance and digital projects to reduce operating costs. She also said a further £500,000 would be given to "support the international recruitment and promotional activities of Welsh universities". The extra funding comes after Ms Howells' stated earlier this month that no additional money was available for the response to this, she said "things move fast in politics" and the additional funds was "not money that's been left over from the education budget". "I'm really pleased I've been able to secure it forward for the sector." Despite the additional funding, critics have argued it will not address the major financial challenges facing the Higher Education in Wales. The University of South Wales confirmed on Tuesday it would be launching a consultation later in the week on reviewing academic provision. It is expected job losses will be University is also expected to outline plans which could lead to job losses on Lloyd, Lecturers' Union UCU Cymru said: "Unfortunately, and whilst we are grateful for the ministers efforts, the amount offered will still not be enough to stabilise the sector".Cardiff University added it was "too early to say how this funding will affect Cardiff University, but it will be considered in our wider financial context."
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Business
- New York Times
In Yearslong Search for Lost Bitcoin, a Final Proposal: Let Me Buy the Landfill
What James Howells wants to do is, by his account, simple: buy a landfill, excavate tens of thousands of tons of trash, cart every piece by dump truck to a scanner with A.I.-trained detection technology, install a backup magnetic belt to pick up any lingering metallic objects and, thus, find the long-lost hard drive that contains his mistakenly discarded bitcoin key, worth somewhere around $800 million. 'This seems logical,' Mr. Howells said of his plan. For more than a decade, Mr. Howells has begged, negotiated and pleaded with anyone — most often, the Newport City Council, in South Wales — to get access to the mountains of waste in pursuit his crypto White Whale: a hard drive that was accidentally thrown away in 2013. He has secured a data recovery firm and an excavator. He has enlisted the former landfill director to map out the site. He has taken the case to court, to no avail. The city has so far refused to let him excavate the landfill, and is planning to close the site for good. Now, in what may be the final stage of his Pequodian journey, Mr. Howells has one final ask of the Newport City Council: If it won't let him dig up the place, let him buy it. 'Seems like a better plan for me and the city,' said Mr. Howells, who envisions clearing out the trash and converting the site to a park, or perhaps making it a dump site again. 'The landfill gets cleaned. I get to dig for my hard drive.' In Mr. Howells' plight is both the universal and the sensational. Who among us hasn't accidentally tossed something of value? How many have tried, however fruitlessly, to get it back? The potential value of Mr. Howells' error raises a trickier question, too: Who owns our trash once it's gone, especially when it's worth more than half a billion dollars? The circumstances that led Mr. Howells to this juncture are well documented. A computer science analyst, he was cleaning out his office sometime in 2013 when he carelessly left a hard drive among a pile of rubbish earmarked for the dump. A miscommunication with his partner at the time led to the drive being gathered up and taken to the landfill. What Mr. Howells didn't realize then was that the hard drive — a backup from an old gaming computer — contained the only copy of his 51-character private key, used to access Bitcoin wallets. Mr. Howell had mined cryptocurrency as a hobbyist in the late 2000s, back when it was mostly useless. It was months later when Mr. Howells realized the stakes of the error: His once-modest Bitcoin wallet was worth millions. He has been trying to get the drive back ever since, hoping that, even after 12 years, some of the disc might be salvageable. Standing in his way is the Newport City Council, which says the elusive hard drive belongs to the city anyway, even if it were to be recovered. (It hasn't been, and according to the city, any attempt to do so would come at a prohibitively high cost.) A judge has backed the council. Mr. Howells insists the drive is still legally his, arguing that it was technically discarded without his permission by a third party. He even offered to split the Bitcoin fortune with the city, but was rejected. Mr. Howells' desperate, yearslong search isn't a surprise to experts in the cryptocurrency world, where fortunes are fleeting and one small, poorly-timed decision can separate winners from losers. 'Generally speaking, the experience of quite a number of people involved in crypto assets has been, maybe not as drastic as this, but quite similar,' said Iwa Salami, a professor of fintech regulation at the Royal Docks School of Business and Law. 'The industry is one that can leave people with regrets, particularly when you sell or buy cryptoassets at the wrong time.' Critics and the Newport City Council have called Mr. Howells' pursuit a fool's errand, a journey of towering stakes with no guarantee that a 12-year-old, buried disc is even findable, let alone readable. But Mr. Howells says the numbers alone make searching the proverbial haystack worthwhile. 'This needle is very, very, very valuable — $800 million,' Mr. Howells said of the hard drive. 'Which means I'm willing to search every piece of hay in order to find the needle.' Mr. Howells' last-ditch effort comes after he lost a case in Britain's High Court seeking to force the Newport City Council to let him excavate the dump. A judge said the wild hard drive chase had 'no realistic prospect of succeeding,' even if taken to a higher court. Not long after, the city announced plans to close and cap the site, a fact Mr. Howells says should have been disclosed in the recent court proceedings. Regardless, he believes his proposal to buy the site would save the city money in the long run. 'They haven't said they're willing to sell it,' Mr. Howells acknowledged, before citing a string of regulatory statutes and budget projections that he says suggest the city ought to. The Newport City Council declined to comment further on the matter, including about whether it would seriously consider Mr. Howells' offer. A spokesperson for the office pointed to a statement from 2023, which said: 'We have been very clear and consistent in our responses that we cannot assist Mr. Howells in this matter. Our position has not changed.' Those who study crypto markets — and the psychology behind them — didn't expect the obstacles to stop Mr. Howells. 'It's human, isn't it?' Ms. Salami said. She laughed, recalling a recent instance in which she herself had misplaced a contact lens moments before an important event. She had searched furiously, even tearing through the trash to find it. Imagine, she said, if it had been worth half a billion dollars. 'Some people can walk away and move on, and count it as a loss,' she said. 'Some people will just not be able to move on.'
Russia Today
10-02-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Man seeks to buy landfill to search for Bitcoin treasure
A Welsh man is seeking to buy a local landfill to look for a hard drive containing a multi-million-dollar Bitcoin fortune that he believes is buried there. Computer engineer James Howells lost a High Court case against the Newport city council last month, which denied him permission to excavate the dump. The hard drive containing Howells' Bitcoin wallet was lost in 2013 when his then-partner mistakenly discarded it during an office cleanup. The wallet contained 8,000 coins. That year, Bitcoin value spiked, with the total value of the hard drive's contents jumping from about $106,400 in January to over $9 million in December, prompting Howells to start trying to retrieve the device. Today, the tokens believed to be buried are worth over $775 million. The Newport City Council has consistently refused Howells' requests to excavate the site, citing environmental concerns and legal restrictions. The council stated that the landfill is nearing the end of its operational life and will be capped in the 2025-26 financial year, with plans to build a solar farm on part of the land. The council also argued that the hard drive became its property once it entered the landfill, a claim upheld by the court. READ MORE: Cryptocurrencies record largest ever single-day fall In a statement published on Monday by multiple British news outlets, Howells, 39, said he was 'potentially interested in purchasing the landfill site' and has discussed the option with investment partners. Late last month he also lodged an appeal at the Royal Court of Appeal in London. The landfill in question holds more than 1.4 million tonnes of waste. In a 2021 interview, Howells said he believed that despite spending nearly a decade layered with soil and other trash, the hard drive may still be usable thanks to its anti-corrosive properties. The judge said however there was 'no realistic prospect' of Howells succeeding at trial.
