Man who lost bitcoin fortune in Welsh tip explores purchase of entire landfill

Retro · Wednesday at 06:25

Fancy losing a £600m fortune in bitcoin because one didn't make a backup of the wallet? The article calls this guy a "computer expert", but I wonder how "expert" he really is to make a basic blunder like this.

Been reading about this saga on and off in the news for years. Can you imagine this man's frustration? Turns out that his (ex?) girlfriend accidentally threw the drive away.

I'm rooting for him, but I'm not very optimistic that he's going to get it back. It's quite possible that even if he somehow finds that drive, that it's damaged beyond recovery. Basically, the whole drive can be trashed and still be recoverable by specialist services as long as the platters aren't damaged or demagnetized. Given the rough environement of the garbage truck and its compressor and then the actual rubbish tip, I don't hold out much hope for it. Good luck.

A computer expert who has battled for a decade to recover a £600m bitcoin fortune he believes is buried in a council dump in south Wales is considering buying the site so he can hunt for the missing fortune.

James Howells lost a high court case last month to force Newport city council to allow him to search the tip to retrieve a hard drive he says contains the bitcoins.

The council has since announced plans to close and cap the site, which would almost certainly spell the end of any lingering hopes of reaching the bitcoins. The authority has secured planning permission for a solar farm on part of the land.

Howells, 39, said on Monday it had been “quite a surprise” to hear of the closure plan. He said: “It [the council] claimed at the high court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway.