A judge has dismissed a man’s lawsuit to excavate a landfill for a Bitcoin hard drive worth £598 million in Newport, Wales
Newport: So, there’s this guy, James Howells, who’s been trying to dig up a landfill to find a Bitcoin hard drive he accidentally tossed away back in 2013. Can you believe it? The thing is now worth around £598 million!
He claims his ex-partner mistakenly dumped it, and since then, the value has skyrocketed. The landfill is massive, holding over 1.4 million tonnes of waste, but he thinks he can pinpoint the hard drive’s location to just 100,000 tonnes.
But here’s the kicker: the local council wasn’t having it. They went to court to stop him from digging it up, saying that once it hit the landfill, it became their property. A judge agreed, saying there was no real chance of his case succeeding.
Judge Keyser said there were no reasonable grounds for his claim. Ouch! Howells had even teamed up with an American hedge fund to back his legal battle, but it looks like that didn’t help much.
He’s been trying to work with the council for years, hoping to get their permission to search the site. He even offered to donate 10% of the find to the local community, but the council wasn’t impressed.
They argued that environmental permits don’t allow for such searches. It’s a tough break for Howells, who just wanted to recover what he believes is rightfully his. It’s a wild story, isn’t it?
