Who would have thought that a small mistake of throwing away a hard drive in 2013 could turn into a nightmare worth almost $800 million in Bitcoin?
But James Howells, a Welshman, refused to give up and came up with the most daring plan of all – buying the landfill!
Through his X platform, Howells excitedly announced that he had raised enough funds to buy the Docksway Landfill in Newport.
His story began more than a decade ago, when he accidentally threw away a hard drive containing a private key to Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that was still in its ‘experimental phase’ at the time.
But now, with Bitcoin’s price soaring, Howells is starting to realize how valuable that mistake was, and all those Bitcoins are just empty dreams without the key.
However, digging up this ‘digital garbage’ is not as easy as clicking ‘buy’ on Binance.
Newport City Council has repeatedly rejected his request over the past four years, citing high costs, pollution risks and no guarantee that the hard drive will still work.
With the landfill set to close by 2025/26, Howells is now increasingly panicked, fearing that the key will be lost to the blockchain forever.
The question is, can Howells reach the moon in his fight or just add dust to his dream of forking?
If he fails, it won’t just be the landfill that will be buried, but his wallet too.
