Man who lost 7500 bitcoin in a landfill asks gov't he wants to dig it up

[LUCKMCFLY]

This time bitcoin doesn't get too much attention because it has a low value, i saw this man story before and just ignored it as people do because I don't have any knowledge with the bitcoin at that time the same thing with the first pizza paid with the use of the bitcoin imagine how many years now this story is just nothing and now becomes one of the saddest stories who losses a lot of million dollars we didn't expect that the price of the bitcoin may rise up as long as here now.

Yes, I see your point and it is very acceptable, however when we start to see models like the S2F I have seen that many are not seeing it very well and are seeing inconsistencies, of course in the short term the model does not work, but In the long term, BTC still looks very good and apparently it still looks good, sometimes everyone can be a winner when BTC rises in price, because it is normal, it is natural and in fact it is what will happen, but I think that worldwide the safest investment in the world is BTC, because I know that it will rise much more than the last ATH, if people saw models like the S2F and had more knowledge of the market, maybe there would never be any doubts about BTC,

In conclusion, with what you mention about pizza paid for with so many BTC, it is synonymous that not everyone has the same investment concept as others, that it is necessary to raise financial education to understand many things that happen in the BTC market.

[AakZaki]

this man really didn't give up on his quest. Just imagine the current 7,500 Bitcoin if sold, he will become a very rich person, therefore this man continues to make efforts to find the Hard drive containing the bitcoin. but whether the hard drive is still intact and can function again after being found, because it has been more than 8 years in the trash. and he still needed permission to rummage through the trash because the trash he was looking for was a treasure.

[Kasabus]

Maybe he can be lucky to get back the hard drive. In this incident it is all his fate. Already this incident is a history, and now once again the history seems to be modified with the lost drive found safely. It is almost 9years after the incident. What he have lost is huge, and there'll be more users who have lost and have their life move on with some difficulty.

It is really a huge incident happen with him. He is on the list of the unfortunate person in the world. I just really wanna to see a ending of the story as well. I think many investor, gamer has lost their asset cause they ignore it when it low in price and didn’t keep the keys and document to back it up. I could not hold myself if there is happen something like this. I am just expecting that he will get back his asset and become happy.

  Although i felt the regrets that he is feeling now, but i really feel that even if he continues digging up until at the present times, the chances to found that hard drive is already very slim. So he should not expect too much that there' still hope to find it, as a lot of years have passed. But hey, its not too late for bitcoin. Invest in bitcoin again so you can regain the profits that you have lost unexpectedly. It will be useless if you keep on regretting, so start all over again as bitcoin will keep on opening doors of opportunities and its up to you how you will seize it.

[coolcoinz]

Uhmmmm, I think asking for permission might be in order. A mean, his talking about excavation and probably that would be him altering the site and possibly,  the suspension of further dumping of dirt on that site.
Again, its a really serious one from what's his offering and I'm also supposing he doesn't have the resources to get the work going and would need the help of his city in funding the process too. A process that could be said to be a high stake probability of success looking back to the time this hard drive was dumped (8years+). So much for a rash action!

I've read an article from last year about this guy and there was a company that offered to excavate for him. They have heavy equipment and were ready to strike a deal. They'd look for free and if they were to find it he'd give them half of the coins. I feel like the biggest problem here is all that red tape.

Also was thinking since it was 10 years ago, ssd drives were in existence then so it might be one of those that have their data collected on the drive differently and I think last longer and in harsher conditions than one with moving parts.

SSD data is much harder to recover. Unlike HDD, an SSD data can be completely wiped and it's much easier to damage the memory chip than a metal plate inside a metal case.

[Sanitough]

This tells the story that how non serious people were about btc in the start. There were countless such stories. Imagine these 7500 btc are lost forever, don't know whether there is count of such lost bitcoins or not. There is similar story, In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 Bitcoins at a local pizza restaurant called Papa John's to buy himself two pizzas
Next time don't make fun of new technology.

No one has predicted before that bitcoin will be a very huge investment this time, so maybe that is why he is still uncertain on his stand on bitcoin because he did not see its future value. And it can happen to anyone of us. But if you have the faith to something, even if you see the chances of that investment to explode is very slim, you will always give it a big importance and will try to keep it as much as you can.  But things happen differently. And this will be a life changing definitely if he will still succeed in looking for the hard drive. Maybe its too late for most of us, but for him there's always hope for it.

[jaberwock]

No one has predicted before that bitcoin will be a very huge investment this time, so maybe that is why he is still uncertain on his stand on bitcoin because he did not see its future value. And it can happen to anyone of us. But if you have the faith to something, even if you see the chances of that investment to explode is very slim, you will always give it a big importance and will try to keep it as much as you can.  But things happen differently. And this will be a life changing definitely if he will still succeed in looking for the hard drive. Maybe its too late for most of us, but for him there's always hope for it.

2013 is a long time back, and most people then never really believed in Bitcoin, and if they were told that Bitcoin is going to reach as much as it is today, they are not going to believe it at all.

So, I believe that he’s one of those who never really saw Bitcoin going as high as it is worth today. So that’s why he never really cared much about it, and that is the reason why such a mistake would have occurred. If he was truly someone that valued his Bitcoin that much, then I don’t think he would have made such a mistake. If he truly believes that he would be able to find that hard drive there, then wouldn’t be bad if the government gives him a chance.

[Webetcoins]

Did they even give him the permission to do that? And even if he was given the permission to excavate  the land in search of his hard disk, is it possible that he would be able to find the hard disk? Personally, I feel that it is not going to be possible at all, but it wouldn’t be bad if he should give it a try, because he may still go there and luckily for him he might find it after searching for long.

This is why it is not good to disvalue something, even if you don’t know about it, and you are being told that what you are holding has value, you should learn to keep it safe and not just throw it away. Although in his case I would say it’s as a result of carelessness, because according to the OP he cloned the hard drive and mistakenly threw away the one that contained the Bitcoin.

[TheNineClub]

Everyone who is into bitcoin has heard this story before.
A guy cloned his hard drive and threw away the wrong drive in the trash and knows it was in a landfill site. Think they made a episode on the US sitcom series Big Bang Theory out of it.
But the story didn't end there as the person wants to have permission to excavate the site looking for this hard drive with over $275 million worth at today's price of bitcoin.

He is willing to give the city of Newport in the UK a cut of the bitcoin at a sum of $70 million so to be able to do this with approval of their local government.
This story has been run all around the globe at this point and has alot of people scratching their heads as to why he would need permission to rummage around a landfill site in garbage. Alot of countries allow those who want to go around their local trash site looking for pop cans for recycling or whatever they want to bring out of it. Since it is just garbage there.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/uk-man-makes-last-ditch-effort-to-recover-lost-bitcoin-hard-drive.html

Call it the green initiate if you want but there are many who scavenge around in trash looking for those gems.
As they say: "One man's trash is another man's treasure!"

I say give him the scavenge rights and the rest he can pay from his own pocket. I doubt that even if he finds the hard drive he will be able to retrieve anything that is on there. And also, they should fine him for throwing a hard drive into regular trash and not recycling, as you do with electronic components The dude should just let this go. He made a mistake and he should own up to it. I mean, give him the rights and make a TV show about it, or a documentary, he could actually profit from that. I wouldn't put much hope in finding that hard drive mate, it's just fools gold.

[Maestro75]

I don't know how the things happen in UK, but in my country somebody would have been already taking that drive or computer in the same day and selling it for parts or simply the metal

This is what I think also. There is no way that hard drive will still be intact. Somebody would have retrieved it at the point of dump for personal use or sold it off to a merchant who would in return sell it to someone in a third world country who may not even know the importance of it that it goes beyond a mere metal but one housing serious wealth. Let us even say it was left in the dump, what does he think will happen to it? Will he be able to retrieve any information from it because it would have been destroyed by hardship of season, rains and sun. He should just perish the thought of looking for it. It will be waste of time.

[rdbase]

Uhmmmm, I think asking for permission might be in order. A mean, his talking about excavation and probably that would be him altering the site and possibly,  the suspension of further dumping of dirt on that site.
Again, its a really serious one from what's his offering and I'm also supposing he doesn't have the resources to get the work going and would need the help of his city in funding the process too. A process that could be said to be a high stake probability of success looking back to the time this hard drive was dumped (8years+). So much for a rash action!

I've read an article from last year about this guy and there was a company that offered to excavate for him. They have heavy equipment and were ready to strike a deal. They'd look for free and if they were to find it he'd give them half of the coins. I feel like the biggest problem here is all that red tape.

Also was thinking since it was 10 years ago, ssd drives were in existence then so it might be one of those that have their data collected on the drive differently and I think last longer and in harsher conditions than one with moving parts.

SSD data is much harder to recover. Unlike HDD, an SSD data can be completely wiped and it's much easier to damage the memory chip than a metal plate inside a metal case.

Never tried to recover a hard drive so wouldn't know which hardware would be more difficult to recover. But if all resources were available to do it, I would assume anything is possible to get the data. Just look at what the police and interpol's forensic departments can do when they are investigating anything related to cyber crime.

You wouldn't happen to have reference to this article about the company wanting to do the excavation for free and splitting the coins?
Didn't hear about this offer to the victim before.

[Woodie]

Am hoping that after all this effort that the man is putting in trying to retrieve the lost coins, i hope he has his private keys to these coins because chances are keys might not be on this hard drive after putting all these resources in trying to get his lost treasure.

Hope this ends with a happy ending because scavengers might have also got to this which might be a loss on his side.

[m2017]

Do the local rules allow to make approval on such activities?

The answer to this question also worries me. If permission to search for HDD with Bitcoins in the garbage of James is given, despite the fact that it violates the law, then this will be a serious precedent. The law must be the same for everyone. If the opportunity to get 25% of the contents of HDD allows the city administration to rewrite laws, then this is certainly a very serious and bad sign.

In the end, the perseverance and perseverance of James Howells can be envied.  He doesn't lose hope of becoming a multi-millionaire even with such a low chance of finding HDD and after so much time (don't forget that HDD is in an aggressive environment and data loss is most likely).

[pawanjain]

There are too many uncertainties here because he threw it in the dump long time back and anything could have happened by then.
May be someone else would have found it already and but wasn't able to recover the drive.
May be someone else would have found it and was able to recover the drive and used those coins.
The possibility of finding the hard drive is low and even if that person finds it it would be very hard for someone to recover the coins from the drive.

[michellee]

Am hoping that after all this effort that the man is putting in trying to retrieve the lost coins, i hope he has his private keys to these coins because chances are keys might not be on this hard drive after putting all these resources in trying to get his lost treasure.

Hope this ends with a happy ending because scavengers might have also got to this which might be a loss on his side.

Having his private key is his way of getting his wallet back and having his bitcoins back. But if he doesn't remember or doesn't have time to save his private key elsewhere, then he won't be able to open his wallet again, and he can only let it go. Even if he could find the hard drive, as long as he didn't have the private key, he wouldn't be able to open the wallet. We can only pray for him and hope he can find his private key and get his hard drive back.

[lixer]

Am hoping that after all this effort that the man is putting in trying to retrieve the lost coins, i hope he has his private keys to these coins because chances are keys might not be on this hard drive after putting all these resources in trying to get his lost treasure.

Hope this ends with a happy ending because scavengers might have also got to this which might be a loss on his side.

For sure, he has his private key secure. With a huge amount of bitcoins like that, who would careless store his private key anywhere? It is also dangerous to store private key on the same device or drive he is using because a malware can scan it and steal it.

If a normal scavengers found his drive, they cant still open it up because they are just a normal scavengers anyway and they do not have a good knowledge on how btc technology works but worst thing can happen is they can sold it for someone that has a knowledge on this. Recovering them on their own without a private key can still be hard or nearly impossible. The happy ending is if they can negotiate with the real owner.

[rdbase]

There was an update to this story a month or so ago where the person who lost the hard drive must already be infact rich.
That he has plans to have some sort of robots that are more like drones built so they can scan the garbage field in England for the missing drive.
That to me that is going to cost him as much as the coins are probably worth from where the markets stand right of now.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

The robotic dogs he plans to use as part of his plan, if he is ever actually allowed at some point, are made by Boston Dynamics, and are probably not that expensive looking at the big picture: 75K$ per K9 bot, which are allegedly going to be called Satoshi and Hal of all names …

See: https://www.businessinsider.com/james-howells-wants-2-robot-dogs-help-find-bitcoin-dump-2022-7

For those interested in the case, this 12-minute long video depicts the case and interviews James Howell, outlining some of the arguments he plans to use to plea Newport city council for permission. It seems like a no-go to me, but I haven’t read any updates on the case for over a month now.

[Welsh]

Honestly, despite getting away with some of the pitfalls you'd have by having a actual human manned search inside a active site, I still don't think he'll get the permission required. The environmental experts would have a field day with the local council, and they'd likely find themselves in hot water. So, while he's doing the right thing in suggesting he would look to improve the local area by investing in it from the Bitcoin on the hard drive, there's just too many variables, as well as health, and safety.

My first thoughts when this started all those years ago, is he'll never get permission for a number of reasons, but one that really stuck out was the health, and safety violations. For example. it's an active site, and could potentially have unwanted sharp objects, which they'd never be able to give permission to someone to look through it, knowing that there's a good chance that they could get seriously hurt.

So, going the robot route is a good idea, it reduces the risk of injury, and death, plus no one actually needs to be on site. However, there's still issues with disturbance of the debris, which would create a environmental hazard, at least that's what the local council have in mind.

Plus, this is all hearsay remember. While, this man's case might be genuine, he can't prove that A) these funds exist B) They'll still be retrievable, and C) he can retrieve them without causing any disturbance or health hazards.

Plus, it really does open a can of worms if the council did open it up for him to search, since all sorts of people could claim to have lost something. Unfortunately, he's probably never going to obtain that hard drive legally.

There was an update to this story a month or so ago where the person who lost the hard drive must already be infact rich.
That he has plans to have some sort of robots that are more like drones built so they can scan the garbage field in England for the missing drive.
That to me that is going to cost him as much as the coins are probably worth from where the markets stand right of now.

I don't think he was rich, not overly so anyway. I guess that's whatever you deem rich is, he obviously had a decent job being a computer engineer. However, I would think he has made money from the publicity, I mean he has some fairly successful presenters doing a sort of documentary on him, and I'm assuming that wasn't done for free, since stories are sold all the time. Plus, the numerous other stories which have developed along the years. Pretty much everyone in Wales knows this story. Also, and don't quote me on this I believe there's been public fundraising done, as well as likely private investors which have gotten involved in the project. In one of the articles above he says the funding has been secured, therefore the people involved in the proposed project are all likely getting a share if it was ever found.

Just to correct you there too, Newport is in Wales, not England.

[Pierre 2]

I feel like some people want to exploit Bitcoin's popularity this way to gain fame. I personally lost some Bitcoin as well, also I lost some altcoins, thanks to forgetting/losing private keys. But I know the fact that its "nearly" impossible to find those private keys in my young days. So I stopped looking for. I think this guy probably does a show as he will never ever find anything related to claimed Bitcoin. I expect nothing out of this.

[Die_empty]

It is impossible to understand how deeply sad this person is and how desperate he is that he is taking such "measures" to return or partially return the lost millions! One can only sympathize with him, however, in the event of a fantastic success, he will, on the other hand, be the happiest person in the world! I hope he is lucky and we will hear this story many times, but I would like this story to have a happy ending.

His pains and regrets would be immeasurable. Losing such an amount carelessly can be very painful. Although it would be a difficult task to get it back but with the support of the necessary bodies or team of specialists, that hard drive could be found. But it would be impossible to get it back in my country because immediately after it is dumped, human scavengers are already waiting to feast on the parts which are normally sold as scraps.  

There are too many uncertainties here because he threw it in the dump long time back and anything could have happened by then.
May be someone else would have found it already and but wasn't able to recover the drive.
May be someone else would have found it and was able to recover the drive and used those coins.
The possibility of finding the hard drive is low and even if that person finds it it would be very hard for someone to recover the coins from the drive.

If it were in my country he would have gotten permission to excavate the dumpsite immediately. They would never consider the environmental or health implications. In fact, the government would have seen the armed forces protect the site because criminals would have been planning how to use sophisticated types of equipment to retrieve the hard drive. $70,000,000 is a considerable sum that can change the infrastructures of the Local government.